NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday welcomed the decision of United Nations (UN) to have agreed that over the next year, they will evaluate the wording of a document that will call for reforming the Security Council.
“I think it’s a very significant and historic moment in the whole process of UN Security Council reform because of the 23 years of the subject being on the agenda of the United Nations and seven years of the inter governmental negotiation process, we finally have a text on the table and it is India’s hope and that of other reform-minded countries,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup told ANI.
“This text will now enable the Like Minded Countries (LMCs) to move forward on this issue of UN Security Council reform which has now become a very priority issue for large number of countries in the world,” he added.
“Now there is an irreversible momentum for text based negotiations and inter-governmental negotiations processes. This decision, which was taken in the 69th General Assembly, now moves into the 70th General Assembly... It is the hope and expectation of the international community that in this 70th year of the United Nations, the world community would be able to deliver on the process of UN Security Council,” he further said.
The Government of India has welcomed this decision to carry forward the text presented by the President of the General Assembly on the issue of Security Council reform.
“This is a significant development as after more than two decades of discussions, we can now commence text-based negotiations. Adoption of this text by consensus by all UN Member States is reflective of the broad support of the international community to move forward on this issue,” MEA said in a statement.
“We deeply appreciate the leadership of the President of the 69th Session of the General Assembly, H.E. Sam Kutesa, and Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) process, H.E. Courtenay Rattray in carrying forward the IGN towards text-based negotiation process,” the statement said.
“We look forward to early commencement of text-based negotiations with a view to securing concrete outcomes during the 70th Session of the UNGA. We call upon all member states to constructively engage in this process so that the long pending reform of the UN Security Council can be achieved so as to equip the Council to more effectively address the global challenges,” the statement added.
India’s tender to become permanent member of the UN’s Security Council has got a huge boost after securing China’s cooperation.
Nearly 200-member countries of the UN have agreed that during the 70th session of the UNGA, which commences tomorrow, they will have text-based negotiations on reforms in the Security Council, the top decision-making body, which has 15 members including five permanent members- China, Russia, the US, the UK and France.