*UNITED NATIONS: Emphasizing that discussions on restructuring the UnitedNations Security Council are a serious matter that cannot be undermined bysetting arbitrary deadlines or forcing the pace without first findingcommon ground, Pakistan has told a UN panel that the only common groundthat exists is to add more elected, non-permanent members to the 15-memberbody.*
Speaking in the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform,Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, permanent reopresentative of Pakistan to the UN,said that as reform will eventually entail an amendment in the UN Charter,discussions should proceed by careful thought and consensus.
She also pointed out that “Reform of the Security Council is fundamentallydifferent than any other reform process in the UN. It involves thestrategic interests of member states.” By its very nature, she said, theprocess entails that the views and interests of all member states are takenon board. “This is not a partisan assessment but an essential condition fora comprehensive reform of the Security Council,” she asserted.
While sharing the sense of discontent on slow pace of reform, the Pakistanienvoy noted that Council reform has proven to be much more elusive thanother areas of reform. “We can see that the sharpest divergences exist onissues associated with the perpetuation of entrenched ‘privilege’ likecategories of membership and the question of veto,” she added andunderscored the need for moving forward by identifying convergences, andbuilding on them.
Full-scale negotiations to restructure the Security Council began in theGeneral Assembly in February 2009. Despite a general agreement on enlargingthe Council, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharplydivided over the details.
Known as the “Group of Four” India, Brazil, Germany and Japan have shown noflexibility in their campaign for expanding the Security Council by 10seats, with 6 additional permanent and four non-permanent members. On theother hand, Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group say thatadditional permanent members will not make the Security Council moreeffective.
“There is consensus on expansion in the non-permanent category of seats,”Ambassador Lodhi said pointing out that the UfC has gone a step further, byproposing longer term non-permanent seats as a ‘compromise’ solution.