MNS:- India strongly advocates an early and meaningful reform of the United Nations to make it better equipped to serve the needs of the world community. In this context, India has called for expansion of the UN Security Council to make the UN more effective and reflective of contemporary geo-political realities. The Government of India has been actively working along with other like-minded countries for building support among the UN membership for a meaningful restructuring and expansion of the UN Security Council. India has, in collaboration with Brazil, Japan and Germany, together known as the G-4, proposed expansion of the membership of the UN Security Council from the present fifteen to twenty-five with the addition of six permanent and four non-permanent members, including from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The efforts of the G-4 and other pro-reform countries played an instrumental role in starting text-based inter-governmental negotiations in the UN on the subject of Security Council reform in July 2010. Recognizing that there is widespread support to take the reform process towards a concrete outcome, the G-4 Foreign Ministers in a meeting in February 2011 decided to press ahead with all necessary steps to achieve at the earliest an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership of the Security Council. This G-4 initiative garnered cross-regional support and demonstrated that a wide coalition of Member States support it. The G-4 Foreign Ministers in their latest meeting held in New York in September 2012 agreed on the need to stay united and sustain the growing momentum in favour of expansion of the Council in both categories of membership.
Many leading countries have expressed support for the G-4’s proposal for expansion of the Security Council in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership. Among the permanent members of the Security Council, UK and France have supported the G-4 proposal as well as the candidatures of the G-4 countries for permanent membership of an expanded Council. USA is in favour of limited expansion in permanent and non-permanent membership of the Council and would like the new permanent members to be selected on the basis of their contribution to maintenance of international peace and security. Russia and China have also articulated support for expansion of the Security Council but they would like any expansion to be limited, gradual and based on the widest possible consensus among the UN membership.
Several countries, including but not limited to the US, Russia, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Brazil and South Africa, have expressed support for India’s claim for permanent membership in an expanded Security Council. This support has been conveyed in various fora, including, in bilateral discussions with the Government of India. However, the question of India`s membership of the Security Council would only be considered after an agreement on the nature and extent of expansion of the Council is arrived at in accordance with the provisions of the UN Charter.
The Minister of External Affairs Shri Salman Khurshid said this in a statement laid on the Table of the House in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
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