Resolution to trigger talks on UN expansion
The Indian camp claims to have overcome the first hurdle by managing a joint resolution, seeking expansion of the Security Council, reports Nagendar Sharma.
The formal tabling of a fresh resolution by India, Brazil and South Africa seeking reforms in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has paved the way for inter-governmental negotiations on the matter, despite attempts by a powerful lobby to keep it in abeyance.
South Block officials say the importance of the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) resolution being tabled lies in “having been successful in rejecting the interim solution being offered by a powerful lobby in the UN to prevent meaningful reforms...”.
The Indian camp claims to have overcome the first hurdle by managing a joint resolution, seeking expansion of the Security Council in permanent and non-permanent categories, despite opposition from the “Coffee Club”, of which Pakistan is a leading member.
“The IBSA resolution has been supported by 26 countries and this number will go up in the coming days. But at present, we are not looking at the arithmetic. Our objective is to convince friendly nations across continents to support us”, said Nirupam Sen, India’s permanent representative at the UN.
The IBSA resolution aims at more representation for the developing world, stating, “result-oriented inter-governmental negotiations be immediately commenced so as to ensure greater representation to developing countries, representation to developed countries and those with transition economies, reflective of contemporary world realities”.
Indian officials say the IBSA resolution is likely to get support from at least two permanent members of the Security Council. In the neighbourhood, India hopes Afghanistan and the Maldives, will back it.
Incidentally, the joint resolution has been tabled exactly a year after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to Brazil for the first summit meeting of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum. At that juncture, there were hardly any takers for this transatlantic engagement of the UPA.
Now, with the formal tabling of a fresh resolution with the support of 26 countries, the critics of this forum have been proved wrong.
