The Hindu : New Delhi News : Flexibility will help change UN Security Council: Official

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Flexibility will help change UN Security Council: Official

Sandeep Dikshit

India, an active participant, looking at “modest expansion”

India looking at a strength between the low 20s and middle 20s
It may seek a balance of veto powers

NEW DELHI: A month before deliberations on enlarging the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) begin, the official chairing the talks called on all countries to show the required flexibility to achieve a solution.

India will be an active participant at the talks and is likely to be among countries seeking a shorter text for reforming the UNSC on a “realistic basis.” A fresh impetus came from the meeting of G-4 (Indian, Japan, Germany and Brazil) Foreign Ministers in New York on February 11 which directed their UN Permanent Missions to step up efforts to seek reforms and changes in permanent and non-permanent category of UNSC members.

India is looking at a “modest expansion” from the present 15 members [five permanent and the rest rotating] to a strength between the low 20s and middle 20s” and believes it has all the credentials to make the grade.

On veto powers to new members, an anathema to P-5 — U.S., China, U.K., Russia and France — India believes there is a need to find a formula that balances several aspects, saleable to the domestic constituency by not relegating the non-veto category to second class status and some kind of veto restraint regime to raise the cost of using this right.

“To get to a solution, member states will need to ask whether they reached out to each other, sought compromises and restated their positions and the answer will hopefully fall in their laps. If we are not able to achieve reforms, then we run the risk of others approaching some other mechanism of peace and stability. This will lead to sidestepping rule of law and principles of sovereignty of nations,” cautioned Zahir Tanin, Chairman and Facilitator of Inter-Governmental Negotiations on UNSC reforms.

Options

Indian diplomats credit Mr. Tanin for shepherding the deliberations from the discussion to the negotiating phase. A set of options will now be discussed during the seventh meeting of the Inter Governmental panel in March. But they feel Mr. Tanin could have ensured a leaner text instead of five pages of options.

“The reforms are important for all big and small. It is about [conforming to] today's world order. The world has evolved and the hierarchy of powers has changed. New powers have emerged and the old powers are trying to engage them. The need for UNSC reforms is universally agreed,” he observed. In the three years since UNSC became the subject of debate, “we have seen flexibility and political will but that has not been enough which why there is no solution yet.”

Mr. Tanin said the silver lining was that countries were not bogged down in procedural debates. Now it was up to member states on how they choose a shorter way to an agreement. “We can have, if there is a compromise, an agreement in months. But as past experience has shown, it can be years. This is very sensitive since they concern the balance of power. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, we have been trying to avoid any action which would be based on a decision without an agreement.”

India is one the prominent candidates for a permanent seat on a reformed UNSC as it believes the 1945 vintage of five permanent members is hopelessly out-of-date. With discussions moving nowhere, India was among the 140 countries which called for text-based negotiations. This led to compilation of country statements which were further whittled to a five-page text.

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