The Hindu : International / India & World : Natwar Singh calls for rational U.N. reform

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Saturday, Apr 23, 2005

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International - India & World

Natwar Singh calls for rational U.N. reform

P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: The External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, on Thursday urged the United Nations to reform the Security Council in a fashion that would uphold the "objective of democratisation" of the world body.

Participating in the consultations which the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, held in Jakarta with the Foreign Ministers of Asian and African countries, Mr. Singh said there was "no rationale" for any proposition that the veto power of the existing permanent members of the Security Council could not be extended to the new permanent members under the reform package.

India is among the leading aspirants for permanent seats in the Security Council.

Tracing the historical genesis of the veto power, Mr. Singh emphasised that "if new tiers were sought to be created within the United Nations Security Council, it would defeat the very objective of the democratisation of the U.N. body".

He was critical of the move, in certain quarters of the international community, to create a new tier of permanent members without the veto power. At present, the Security Council consists of two categories — five permanent members with the veto rights, at one level, and non-permanent members with no such veto empowerment.

While the present permanent members "may not accept any curtailment of their veto powers", there was also no rationale for denying a similar power to any new permanent member.

Russia favours India

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had stated that India should be a permanent member with the veto entitlement and the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had maintained that there should be no discrimination between the existing permanent members and new permanent members, Mr. Singh told the assembled leaders.

Mr. Singh emphasised that the imperative of rationality would be clear from the fact that one reason for the U.N.'s "string of serious failures" in some areas was the reality that the current permanent membership "represents 1945 and not 2005".

Calling for a sense of urgency, he reminded the leaders that the U.N. Charter was amended only once, the measure expanding the number of non-permanent members of the Security Council. He also called for clarity on the idea of "consensus" which could effectively postpone decisions on the reform issue altogether.

While the U.N. had scored "remarkable successes" in bringing about decolonisation and the abolition of apartheid, Mr. Singh wanted to know "why the U.N. has failed to inspire confidence today" and why multilateralism had failed to prevail over unilateralism.

It was in this complex situation that Mr. Singh noted that Mr. Annan was well equipped to pilot the reform process.

Blueprint for reform

According to diplomatic sources, the "brainstorming session", held in camera, was not aimed at charting out an instant blueprint for reform-action, given the diversity of opinions.

Mr. Singh later met Mr. Annan for an exclusive "bilateral" session. Sources said the Secretary General outlined his vision of U.N. reforms, while Mr. Singh spoke about New Delhi's latest diplomatic engagement of China, the United States and Pakistan.

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Natwar Singh calls for rational U.N. reform