G4, Coffee Club fail to find meeting ground

A meeting of G-4 nations including India, and the Coffee Club, called by Annan in an effort to narrow down their differences on UNSC reform, appeared to have been a futile exercise.

A meeting of G-4 countries, including India, and the Coffee Club, called by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in an effort to narrow down their differences on the expansion of Security Council, appeared to have been a futile exercise with the two sides failing to find a meeting ground.

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Pakistan and Italy-led Uniting for Consensus (UFC), also known as Coffee Club, maintained its position that there should be broadest possible agreement on the modalities of expansion of the Council, to which Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen responded by saying that G-4 was trying to achieve exactly that.

But he rejected the suggestion that consensus essentially meant an agreement between G-4 and the Coffee Club.

Consultations with the UFC, he was quoted as saying by diplomats attending the meeting, were only one element in the process of discussions with member states to achieve broadest possible agreement.

Making a point that G-4 would not get veto power, Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram said that without that, the balance of power cannot be changed.

Sen agreed and pointed out that was exactly the reason G-4 are seeking powers equivalent to those enjoyed by the current five permanent members.

At one stage, diplomats say, G-4 challenged their counterparts in the Coffee Club to bring forward a resolution but one of their representatives said they had no plan to do so.

However, after the meeting, Akram said UFC plans to produce a paper by the weekend which will call for addition of ten non-permanent members who could seek re-election but maintain that there should be no expansion in the permanent categories.

Currently, 10 non-permanent members, who have two year term, cannot seek re-election immediately after their retirement.

G-4 diplomats rejected the idea, saying it would be stillborn.

The UN ambassadors from about a dozen countries who form the Coffee Club were present at the meting.

In his remarks at the meeting, Annan covered major areas of his proposal for reforms of the United Nations and urged the two sides not to limit their discussion only to the expansion of the Council but consider his entire package.

Talking to reporters, he said he had urged them to focus their efforts to areas where it is relatively easy to get consensus and then go to harder issues.