*UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has warned that attempts by the aspirants ofpermanent seats on the UN Security Council to bluster through the ongoingprocess to reach to an agreement on reforming the 15-member body wouldobstruct efforts to make it more democratic.*
“Given fundamental divergences that are evident, the gap that existsbetween respective positions cannot be papered over or worse, blusteredthrough,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodi said in the course of discussions in thelong-running Inter-governmental Negotiations (IGN) aimed at restructuringthe Security Council.
Ambassador Lodhi stressed that the gaps between the positions of theparties should be bridged through an incremental and step-by-step approachand that non-consensual measures must be avoided.
“Any reckless measures could not only threaten the gains made in the IGN,but also set back efforts for a comprehensive reform of the SecurityCouncil,” she said.
Despite a general agreement on enlarging the Council, as part of the UNreform process, member states remain sharply divided over the details.
India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — known as the Group of Four — have beenrelentlessly pushing for the Council’s permanent membership. They haveshown no flexibility in their campaign to expand the body by 10 seats, with6 additional permanent and four non-permanent members.
On the other hand, the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) groupmaintains that additional permanent members will not make the SecurityCouncil more effective and also undermine the fundamental principle ofdemocracy that is based on periodic elections.
At a time when the rules-based international system is confrontingunprecedented challenges, Ambassador Lodhi said, rushing through the reformprocess would amount to a defeat of multilateralism at the hands of theunilateralist tendencies of a few.
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“We should not tread this hazardous path,” Ambassador Lodhi said.
She said one of the most pressing challenges confronting the UN — thegradual erosion of its ‘moral’ standing, especially in the realm ofinternational peace and security — had also cast a shadow on the Council’seffectiveness. That twin challenge had failed to produce a collectiveresponse.
“It is unfortunate that instead of focusing on the real issues underlyingthe Council’s increasing inability to play its critical role, the entirereform exercise has become an unending quest for privileged status by ahandful of states,” Ambassador Lodhi said.
“They have also sought to present the Council’s legitimacy purely as afunction of its composition – thus, only their formal presence in theCouncil would lead these states to wholeheartedly support its decisions,”the Pakistani envoy said, adding that it appears as if the seal oflegitimacy to the body can only be affixed if their interests are firstserved.
“Space for real reform will only open up if such preconceived notions aboutreform are forsaken.”
