India Blames Select Countries For Stalling UN Security Council Reform

NEW YORK, NY-India has criticized the continued delay in United Nations Security Council reforms, saying the Inter-Governmental Negotiations process is being “held hostage by the narrow, divisive interests of a select few” countries.

The UN General Assembly on July 28 adopted, by a voice vote, a decision to roll over the Inter-Governmental Negotiations on Security Council reform to its 81st session beginning in September.

India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador P. Harish, said, “In Indian philosophy, it is said that a soul has to go through cycles of births and deaths, making incremental progress each time, before attaining liberation. The IGN have been through seventeen cycles already. Sadly, however, there is no liberation in sight. How much longer should the world wait?”

Ambassador Harish said the negotiations remain stalled despite “a palpable sense of disappointment among Member States and global citizenry regarding the inability of the Security Council to meaningfully intervene in conflicts across the globe.”

“Every session that we spend regurgitating our positions from the comfort of New York, the hope for a fit-for-purpose UN grows weaker in the real world,” he added.

He reiterated India’s call for text-based negotiations with defined timelines and milestones to move the reform process forward.

“The path to securing such reforms is clear – text-based negotiations with clearly defined timelines and milestones. The outcome of such a genuine effort must lead to an expansion in both categories, with greater representation of the Global South,” Ambassador Harish said.

The negotiations have remained deadlocked as the 13-member Uniting for Consensus group, led by Italy and including Pakistan, continues to oppose moving to a negotiating text without consensus, a position India says has prevented meaningful progress.

Speaking on behalf of the G4 grouping of India, Brazil, Japan and Germany, Japan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Yamazaki Kazuyuki, called on the co-chairs to prepare a consolidated model that would pave the way for text-based negotiations.

“To truly move the reform process forward, the G4 expects that, in the next intergovernmental session, the Co-Chairs will put all their efforts into the development of a consolidated model… and finally pave the way for text-based negotiations,” Ambassador Yamazaki said.

Speaking on behalf of the L69 group of developing countries, Saint Lucia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Menissa Rambally, also called for consolidating reform proposals to facilitate text-based negotiations.

“This is a mandate for the eighty-first session, not an aspiration to be deferred indefinitely,” Ambassador Rambally said. (IANS)