United Nations: Asserting that majority members of the UN General Assembly support expansion of the Security Council, India on Friday said that the body would remain beset with the "current problem" unless it was reformed.
"Not making the right choices will mean that the problems that currently beset the UNSC will persist in the future. It is for this reason that we think we need to be practical and forward-looking," Vivek Katju, Special Secretary, International Organisations and Political Issues said during the Informal General Assembly Plenary Meeting on
"Intermediate Model".
"The majority favors expansion of the Security Council in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership," Katju said.
"Colleagues have argued, and I believe convincingly, that the focus of this round of negotiations should be forward-looking. That obviously means we should focus on the details of what Member States desire, which is reform and expansion of the Security Council in both existing categories of membership," he argued.
Opposing the intermediate model suggested by a group of few countries, Katju said: "It was predicated on the fact that the intermediate model does not address the core demand of Member States i.e. genuine reform of the Security Council."
That being so, it is hard to see how it helps us to engage in a discussion on this issue since this model does not appear to garner overwhelming, or even requisite, support, he said. "While we are open to general explorations of ideas and proposals, we need clarity on the utility of such general ideas," he said.
"What is the intermediate model `intermediate` to?" he asked adding for those from United For Consensus group, who present this notion as a sign their "flexibility" -- which, as we know, is a distillation of the old wine of limiting expansion to the non-permanent category in the new bottle of flexibility, it needs to be asked ourselves in what way is it
intermediate?
"If it is in the sense of a compromise, where is the `compromise` on their part, since this is essentially limiting us to expansion in the non-permanent category," he said.
"For those of us who believe that an intermediate solution is essentially an interim measure, in that it postpones a decision until it is easier for those who have opposed expansion of the UNSC in both categories for fifteen and years and more, I can only say that we are deluding ourselves to believe that a comprehensive solution will be
easier to find later. Indeed, one can argue that the quest for a lasting solution would be stymied by an interim structure," Katju said.
Bureau Report
