The Pakistani envoy also underscored the need for flexibility to achieve the required consensus among all UN member states to overcome the stalemate in the reform negotiations…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan has made a strong case against creating new permanent seats on the UN Security Council, saying an increase in the number of non-permanent members would make the 15-member body more representative, democratic and effective.
The only criteria for Security Council membership set out in the UN Charter is for the election of non-permanent members,” Pakistan Ambassador to UN Munir Akram told delegates when the deadlocked Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) aimed at restructuring the Council resumed on Thursday.
The Pakistani envoy also underscored the need for flexibility to achieve the required consensus among all UN member states to overcome the stalemate in the reform negotiations, The Express Tribune reported.
“Unfortunately, consensus on Security Council reform has been impeded, from the outset, by the demand of four countries that they be selected as new permanent members in an expanded Security Council,” he said, referring to the campaign by India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, known as the Group of Four (G-4), for elevated status.
“Their demand violates the principle of sovereign equality of States; it ignores the reality that permanent membership and the veto are often the cause of the Council’s inaction,” Ambassador Akram said.
Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas — the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly, The Express Tribune reported.
Progress towards restructuring the Security Council remains blocked as G-4 countries continue pushing for permanent seats in the Council, while the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group firmly opposes any additional permanent members, Express Tribune reported.
Raking up J&K
After India lambasted Pakistan on Thursday for raking up Jammu and Kashmir issue during a debate at the ongoing meeting of member nations of the United Nations Security Council, Former Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, Dilip Sinha, stressed on the fact that that there is no point of wasting time on what Pakistan says as no country pays attention towards Pakistan.
“Pakistan has been raising the Kashmir issue since Pakistan was created. It’s been doing this, there is nothing that can be done to stop Pakistan from raising this Kashmir issue. Fortunately, now, for India, as far as we are concerned, the issue is no longer there as an international issue. No country pays any attention to Pakistan and Pakistan’s raising this issue. So, my own view is that we should ignore these statements made by Pakistan and just move on” said the Former envoy.
Further highlighting the fact that India has more important things to do, the former envoy added that we unnecessarily give importance to Pakistan by reacting to it.
“There are far more important things for us to do. We have just taken over the presidency of G20. We are in the big league now. There’s no point now wasting time over what Pakistan says in these bodies. There is nothing we can do to stop Pakistan, and we unnecessarily give importance to Pakistan by reacting to it”, he said.
Earlier, India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Pratik Mathur in a right of reply during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting on the UN Security Council said “As we meet today to discuss UNSC reforms, a representative of Pakistan has yet again made unwarranted references to Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir remain an integral and inalienable part of India irrespective of what Pakistan’s representative believes.”
He added, “Pakistan’s desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods and a bad habit of abusing the sanctity of multilateral forums deserves collective contempt and perhaps sympathies as well.”
Earlier in the day, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj had addressed the plenary meeting, delivering a statement on behalf of the G4 nations of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan.
She had asserted that the longer the Security Council reform is “stalled, the greater its deficit in representation. And representation is – an inescapable precondition for its legitimacy and effectiveness. (IANS/ANI)