India, along with Brazil, Japan and Germany, on Tuesday offered to temporarily give up their veto powers in exchange for a permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council. The proposal by the G4 countries is a bid to reform the council’s traditional structure, IANS reported.
“The issue of veto is important, but we should not allow it to have a veto over the process of council reform itself,” said India’s Permanent Representative at the UN Syed Akbaruddin, at the Inter-Governmental Negotiations on Council Reforms. He spoke on behalf of the G4 nations, which have been lobbying for permanent seats on a reformed UNSC.
Akbaruddin also objected to a suggestion made by the 13-nation Uniting for Consensus group – it proposed creating a category of longer-term elected members on the Security Council. The Indian representative said the suggestion by the lobby, which includes Pakistan, was an attempt to obstruct the G4’s application for permanent UNSC membership.
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States have been permanent members of the council since it was formed in 1945. The UN General Assembly elects the remaining 10 members for two-year terms. For years, China and Pakistan have appeared to hinder India’s application for permanent membership, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly pushed for, calling it was “India’s right”.
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