NEW YORK – India found itself in the dock at a resumed meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council reform when Pakistan and other delegates demanded some rationale for its bid – along with Brazil, Germany and Japan – for permanent membership of the 15-member body, but it failed to come up with a response, according to informed sources.
In contrast with the previous meetings of the IGN process in which delegates mainly read out position papers, Monday’s closed-door session was interactive in nature. After India’s UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking on behalf the Group of Four, called for the Security Council’s expansion in the permanent category, delegates posed a barrage of questions mainly seeking the criteria for eligibility of new permanent members if they were to be elected.
Obviously it seemed that the G-4 has no agreed criteria. At the outset, Pakistan’s Ambassador Dr Maleeha Lodhi exposed the poor logic of India and its allies, saying that the G4 formula of adding more permanent seats reflected the self-serving national ambition of a few at the expense of the world body’s wider membership. She said that the objective of Security Council expansion should be to respond to the concerns and “aspirations of all, not just a few”.
The envoy also pointed out some serious legal and logical loopholes in the G4 position. Having no cogent response, it is understood India and its allies chose to maintain silence. A member of Pakistani team at the meeting then asked how new permanent members would enhance accountability of the Security Council. Already, he pointed out, the council faced a deadlock on many issues due to differences among the existing permanent members.
Will the new permanent members not cause complete paralysis of the Security Council? Pakistan also asked India and its allies to specify criteria for permanent membership. As India and its allies faced pressure, Pakistan urged India to at least be transparent about the negotiating process, and list the members of L.69 group a negotiating group of developing countries from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific seeking the Council’s reform.
After some hectic consultations, Saint Lucia said the group had 42 members. The group was asked to submit the list to IGN’s chair. The real purpose of India and G4, it was pointed out, was self-serving as it sought 6 permanent seats for 6 privileged countries and only 4 seats for 182 Member States of the UN. Pakistan and the UfC countries, however, were not the only ones raising such questions, according to sources.
Several other delegations recognised wide divergences on the issue of permanent seats, which prevented reform of the Security Council for more than two decades. On Monday, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea strongly opposed permanent membership of Japan another member of the G4. According to sources, the G4 countries appeared fending for themselves individually in the meeting.
The Indian ambassador hardly received any help from the other three members of G4, with Germany not having intervened even once during the meeting that focused on critical issues of Security Council reform. Delegations that witnessed the proceedings acknowledged that despite G4’s aggressive campaign for an elevated status at the UN, the rationale for their position seemed untenable.
