The United Kingdom has urged for the enlargement of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in both permanent and non-permanent categories and repeated its support for the addition of new permanent seats for Brazil, Germany, Japan, India, and other nations.
Barbara Woodward, the UK ambassador to the UN, spoke during the Security Council’s annual discussion on Security Council reform on Thursday “Our stance is widely acknowledged.
The enlargement of the Security Council in both the permanent and non permanent categories has long been demanded by the United Kingdom.”
We favour the addition of new permanent seats for Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan to the Council as well as permanent African participation, she added.
Woodward stated that the UK also supports an expansion of the non-permanent category of membership, taking the Security Council’s total membership to somewhere in the mid-20s.
Speakers reiterating their calls for expanding the 15-member body and modernising its working procedures to make it more transparent, inclusive, representative, accountable, and effective in a world beset by a cascade of interrelated crises opened the General Assembly’s annual discussion.
In the meantime, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj of India addressed on behalf of the G4 nations, which also included Brazil, Germany, and Japan.
She expressed her disappointment about the dearth of meaningful work following four decades of fair representation.
She said that the longer Council reform is blocked, the worse its lack of representation will be. “Representation is an inevitable precondition for legitimacy and effectiveness,” she stated.
“The longer the Security Council reform is stalled, the greater its deficit in representation. And representation is an inescapable precondition for its legitimacy and effectiveness,” she added.
India’s Permanent Representative stressed it is high time to bring the Security Council in line with its Charter responsibility to act on behalf of the entire Membership.
“This will not be achieved without enhancing the membership in both categories. Only this will enable the Council to effectively manage today’s global conflicts and increasingly complex and interconnected global challenges it faces today,” she added.
The G4, according to Ambassador Kamboj, have repeatedly called for a single, unified text and new working procedures to ensure an inclusive, open, and transparent process that includes webcasting, record-keeping, and adherence to the General Assembly’s norms of procedure.
The only way to break the cycle of repeating well-known positions, which has been the IGN’s signature in recent years, she claimed, is through a single, condensed text, preferably with attribution.
India’s senior diplomat reiterated the G4’s stance, stating that the four countries support the need for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council, including an increase in seats in both categories of membership, equitable regional representation, more open and inclusive working procedures, and improved relations with other countries including UN general assembly.
