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India favours UNSC expansion
India criticised the US and China for their insistence on the consensus route, reports S Rajagopalan.
India on Friday made a strong pitch for a UN General Assembly vote to speedily decide on the Security Council's expansion and criticised the US and China for their insistence on the consensus route.
In a strongly worded intervention in the ongoing UN debate on reforms, India's UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen also took pot shots at Washington and Beijing for suggesting that there should be no deadlines for ushering in reforms.
Disagreeing with the contention that a vote on the reforms issue would lead to dangerous divisions, Sen asked: "Is the talk of consensus a means of preventing dangerous divisions or a means of preventing democratisation?"
"Are some opposing voices from within the P-5 (the five veto powers) because of the fear of lack of effectiveness or to prevent even the slightest erosion of dominance?" he asked.
Over the previous two days, in a rare unanimity, the US and China vigorously advocated a consensus approach and rejected "artificial deadlines" to deal with the issue.
Their stand ran counter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's prescription, urging all member-nations to accept the reforms package by the time the General Assembly holds its annual summit in September.
Setting forth the US position, Shirin Tahir-Kheli, senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on UN reforms, said: "As the reform process proceeds, the United States would like to move forward on the basis of broad consensus along the lines we have previously stated and without artificial deadlines."
In qualified comments, she said the US would support Security Council reform "provided in enhances the effectiveness of the Council". "We remain open to considering all proposals and will evaluate them against that benchmark," she added.
Earlier, China conveyed its objection to setting a timetable for the reforms package. Its ambassador Wang Guangya also said that Beijing would be wary of "forcing through any immature proposals lacking consensus in the form of a vote".
The G-4 nations, comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, are keen to move a set of resolutions in the General Assembly over the next few months seeking expansion of the Council, permanent seats for themselves and amendment of charter for the purpose.
