“Risk Oblivion If…”: India's Stark Warning To UN Security Council

New Delhi:

India has stressed on the need for urgent reforms within the United Nations Security Council saying that the global body is otherwise heading towards “oblivion”. Expressing frustration over prolonged discussions, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj said nearly 25 years have passed since world leaders committed to comprehensive reforms at the Millennium Summit in 2000.

“Discussions on Security Council reforms have persisted earnestly for well over a decade since the early 1990s. The world and our future generations can no longer afford to wait. How much longer must they wait?” she said during an informal meeting on Security Council reforms.

Ms Kamboj urged concrete progress toward reforms, emphasizing the importance of heeding the voices of the younger generation and rectifying historical injustices, especially in Africa.

Warning against maintaining the status quo, Ms Kamboj proposed a more inclusive approach, cautioning that restricting Security Council expansion to non-permanent members could exacerbate disparities in its composition. She emphasized the need for representativeness and equitable participation to enhance the Council’s overall legitimacy.

“We must push forward a reform heeding the voices of the young and future generations, including from Africa, where the demand to correct historical injustice grows even stronger. Otherwise, we simply risk sending the council down the path of oblivion and irrelevant,” she said.

#WATCH | At the UNGA, Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj says, ” Discussions on reform of the Security Council have been going on, as you well know, in earnest for well over a decade, since the early 1990s. In addition, world leaders at the Millennium… pic.twitter.com/qyHbJgTGAA

— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2024

Echoing India’s call for greater representation, the G4 countries—India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan—emphasized the importance of reflecting the diversity and plurality of views from the 193 member states, particularly in the non-permanent category.

In a practical move, Kamboj suggested identifying specific groups or countries deserving special consideration in the reform process and listening carefully to their voices. “Member states should also make full use of the possibility of cross-regional arrangements to ensure that the diversity of the General Assembly membership is adequately reflected in the Council,” she said. “To move the discussion from the abstract to the concrete, in our view, it would be useful for member states to first identify and define which specific groups or countries deserve special consideration in this regard and then carefully listen to their voices.”

Earlier on February 17, Ms Kamboj had reiterated India’s support for comprehensive reforms of the UNSC across all five clusters, including an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories.