India in the UN General Assembly said that the Security Council has become a “damaged body”.
New York:
A handful of countries are using the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) as a “smokescreen” and to halt progress on Security Council reform, which has “deteriorated,” India said, stating that it is time for a ” decisive decision “. movement “to achieve long-overdue reform of the powerful UN body.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador TS Tirumurti, speaking at the UN General Assembly on ‘Issue of equitable representation and increased membership of the Security Council’, said that nothing has moved for more than a decade in The IGN saved hearing passionate statements about the need for reform.
“Today’s Security Council is a deteriorated body. It has been unable to act credibly essentially due to its unrepresentative nature. But then what is happening within the IGN process, to which we appear to be married?” Tirumurti said Monday.
Criticizing the absence of a single negotiating text, Mr. Tirumurti said that the IGN has become a “platform for debate in a university rather than a serious results-oriented process at the United Nations consisting of member states. sovereigns “.
“And why have we reached this step? Because only a handful of countries do not want us to continue. They have stopped the progress of the IGN. They are using the IGN as a smokescreen to avoid being identified paying lip service to reform of the Security Council.
“The conditions they are setting are impossible to meet, which is a total consensus of all member states. Ironically, this is happening at a time when last week we were in a great rush to grant us the right to electronic vote. But for IGN, they don’t want to vote, leave electronic voting alone, but just full consensus! “he said.
Stating that there is a need for a decisive move this year in the UNSC reform process, Mr. Tirumurti said: “Without a decisive move, I feel that those who support real reform and who wish to fulfill the commitment made by our leaders, will be forced to look beyond the IGN, perhaps to this very Assembly, in search of results. If that happens, we should not hesitate to review the IGN process itself. “
He said that since there has been no progress for a decade, the IGN has not only been informal but has no rules of procedure or records, forcing nations to keep their own notes and placing a tremendous burden on all small states. and medium.
“The same countries that shed crocodile tears for small and medium-sized states are the same ones that deny them even basic courtesy, which is to help them keep an official record of the discussions. What happens here has no record and we begin again next year as if nothing has happened, “Tirumurti said.
India will join the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for a period of two years from January 1, 2021.
India has been at the forefront of many-year efforts to reform the UN Security Council, saying that it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geopolitical realities of the 21st century. .
The Indian ambassador emphasized that by the end of the 75th session of the General Assembly in September next year, progress must be made to ensure that the General Assembly Rules of Procedure are applied to the IGN to achieve an open, inclusive and transparent process. .
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