News Investigators/ Foreign Ministers of the G4 nations have renewed calls for urgent and comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The ministers met on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Monday.
They made the call in a joint statement issued after the meeting
They included Brazil’s Mauro Vieira, Germany’s Johann David Wadephul, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Japan’s Motegi Toshimitsu.
According to them, the council in its present form can no longer effectively maintain international peace and security.
They reviewed progress made during the 80th UNGA session under the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN), framework and assessed the current state of play on UNSC reform.
The ministers said the increasingly challenging geopolitical environment has made reform more necessary than ever before.
According to them, the G4 ministers noted that the UNSC is currently unable to effectively discharge its core responsibility of maintaining international peace and security.
“Its representativeness, legitimacy, credibility and efficacy are now in question,” they.
The ministers attributed this to “an anachronistic eight-decades old architecture, which is not reflective of contemporary geopolitical realities and an impediment to appropriately dealing with contemporary and future challenges.”
They said that expansion of the security council in both permanent and non-permanent categories is central to any meaningful reform, a position they said was supported by a majority of UN member states.
They reiterated the need to improve representation for underrepresented and unrepresented regions and groups, including Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, recognising historical injustices in the council’s composition.
The G4 welcomed the reform model presented by the African Group during the 80th session and reaffirmed support for Africa’s demand for enhanced representation, including in the permanent category.
They, however, expressed strong concern over the lack of progress in the IGN framework after 18 years of deliberations, describing it as largely ineffective in forging any concrete outcomes.
They also raised serious reservations over the presentation of a “bridging proposal” before the commencement of text-based negotiations.
According to the ministers, it does not reflect the views of a clear majority of member states who support expansion in both categories.
The ministers recalled that, in line with the UN Charter and the IGN mandate, consensus is not the benchmark for decision-making on Security Council reform.
Moving forward, the G4 said it will collaborate with other reform-oriented groups to develop a consolidated model that reflects the voice of the majority and prioritise the start of text-based negotiations.
They said that discussions on reform needed not be confined to the IGN and expressed willingness to engage the wider UN membership in other forums, including the UN General Assembly.
The ministers, describing their countries as democracies with shared commitment to multilateralism, the rule of law, and the UN Charter, said they would continue close coordination during the 81st session of the UNGA.
Officials from the four countries have been directed to follow up on the discussions and take stock at the next Director General-level meeting scheduled to hold in New Delhi.
NAN
