There is an urgent need to reform the United Nations Security Council within a suitable time frame to make it more representative and the members of the G4 countries are legitimate for permanent membership. This was what Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said in a joint statement after their special summit meeting on Saturday. India is making a pitch for a permanent membership in the council and the meeting of the four leaders was focused on reforms of the UN Security Council or UNSC, a part of which would be to enable the inclusion. The three nations, along with India, make up what is known as the G-4 group – countries which back each other’s bid for permanent seats at the UNSC. This was the first meeting of the G4 in a decade – the boost came after the UN General Assembly adopted a negotiating document for the long-pending reforms. A powerful world body, the UNSC is in charge of international peacekeeping and making changes in the UN charter. The induction of new members in the United Nations Security Council is not easy. First of all, the five permanent members have to unanimously decide on increasing the seats on the council. Then the United Nations General Assembly has to approve the decision of the five members by 2/3rd majority of the members of the UN, which is not so easy. Though former US president George W. Bush and later President Obama have been assuring India of America’s support to India to make it permanent member of the UNSC, India and its allies had failed to muster the world body’s support, obscuring the prospects of India becoming permanent member of the Security Council. With end of Cold War era, there was demand for reforming the UN including Security Council in order to stop the big powers from bulldozing the decisions of the majority through the use of their veto power. The idea was to neutralize the effect of the veto and not to create more islands of power. But the aspirants for this ‘enviable’ slot gave a different colour and suggested an increase in the permanent membership of the Security Council. In 2005, the group of likeminded members of the UN had held a meeting in the Roosevelt hotel near UN headquarters to chalk out a line of action when the matter would come up before the General Assembly in September 2005. In total, 119 member countries including three permanent members of the UNSC had participated in the meeting. The group had resolved that reforms should be made on the basis of unanimous decision and not on the basis of population of a country or any other specific characteristic to accommodate particular countries that did not merit even the membership. Pakistan and other South Asian countries would not feel comfortable to see India – a hegemonic state and an aspirant of a regional and world power – be provided an opportunity to further its interests and designs. The developed countries or big powers should not give importance to the size of the market or to the so-called biggest democracy in the world, as it will amount to giving special consideration to big and mighty. India should rather be asked to improve her record, and ensure that it will neither use brute force against its neighbors nor will it try to destabilize any one of the neighbouring countries.
pk.shafaqna.com
