Pakistan has expressed deep disappointment over the inflexibility shown on Thursday by the Group of Four (G-4) countries – India, Brazil, Germany and Japan – seeking permanent seats in the UN Security Council when the deadlocked negotiations to reform the 15-member body resumed.
“Simple narration of known positions without flexibility, as done today by the G-4, flies in the face of objectivity and stultifies negotiations,” Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, the Pakistan permanent representative to the UN, told the eighth round of intergovernmental negotiations aimed at restructuring the Security Council to make it more effective, accountable and representative.
The Pakistani envoy spoke after India’s UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri read out a statement on behalf the G-4 reiterating its stand for expansion in both membership categories – permanent and non-permanent. While Pakistan and several other countries in the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group strongly oppose adding more permanent members, they support an expansion in the non-permanent category, with longer tenure.
The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and 10 non-permanent members that are elected in groups of five to two-year terms on the council.
Most countries have argued that the Security Council’s structure does not represent the realities of today’s world. Five key issues under discussion at intergovernmental negotiations are the category of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council, and the Council’s working methods and its relationship with the General Assembly.
“Despite long deliberation, we remain far from being constructive and the format of the eighth round reflects shortage of ideas on how to take the reform process forward,” Ambassador Haroon said.
“By picking a single issue of choice – ‘categories’ and also mentioning ‘working methods’ by-the-way, the principle of comprehensive negotiations on all the five issues, as enshrined in the General Assembly decision 62/557, has been breached,” he said in a sharply-worded speech.
“This explains the recent deadlock in the intergovernmental negotiations,” Haroon pointed out.
The G-4 countries have already circulated a draft resolution seeking Council’s expansion in both categories, and their Thursday’s statement claimed that it had the support of nearly 80 members.
“Despite nearly a year-long intense campaign, the G-4 has not been able to muster significant support for its draft resolution,” the Pakistan ambassador said, adding, “This is not even a simple majority”.
There are 193 members in the General Assembly and two-thirds majority is required for the passage of the resolution… This amounts to categorical rejection of the draft resolution. It is, therefore, time to move on. The process cannot remain hostage to individual desires and aspirations.
“We cannot have a negotiation process, where one group seeks a vote on a single subset of issues. Seeking vote means abandoning negotiations. The idea of piecemeal reform, as propounded in the G-4’s draft and the intergovernmental negotiation process are mutually exclusive,” Haroon said.
“It is clear that by adopting a piecemeal approach, question of the ‘veto’ and the ‘size’ are being avoided,” he pointed out. “We have heard varying interpretations of this ambiguity, like surrendering the veto right or periodic review. The idea of permanent members without veto adds a third category of membership and contradicts the claim of balancing the Permanent-5 in the Security Council.”
“Similarly, given the idea of limited expansion, adding four to six new permanent members will create imbalance between the elected and non-elected members, thereby impacting working methods and relationship of the Security Council with wider UN membership. It will enlarge the ‘club of the privileged’ who will have a vested interest in addressing most issues in the Security Council, further draining the oxygen out of the General Assembly, and enhancing the domination of the Security Council,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“It ( the G-4 proposal) will increase divisions and tensions, not only within the United Nations, but within various regions, contradicting the objective of promoting peace and security. Lacking space for compromise, the G-4 proposal is zero-sum in nature, with 4 winners and 184 losers (out of 193 members, minus India, Brazil, Germany and Japan plus give permanent members. “Therefore, it has neither garnered meaningful support nor allowed progress in the reform process. These important issues cannot be side-stepped”.
