United Nations Secretary General “strong advocate” for UNSC permanent seat for India

JAKARTA: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been a “strong advocate” for India’s inclusion in the permanent seat for United Nations Security Council, his spokesperson said on Thursday.

"In terms of Security Council, the secretary general has been a strong advocate for Security Council reform to make it more reflective of the world that we live in today, as opposed to the world in 1945," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said.

Dujarric was speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Summit and East Asia Summit in Jakarta, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pitching for reforms at the United Nations Security Council, India has told the UN Security Council that there is a “need” for a council that better reflects the geographical and developmental diversity of the UN today.

India’s permanent representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj, on Tuesday, said, “What we therefore need is a Security Council that better reflects the geographical and developmental diversity of the United Nations today. A Security Council where voices of developing countries and unrepresented regions, including Africa, Latin America and the vast majority of Asia and Pacific, find their due place at this horseshoe table.”

Speaking at the UNSC Open Debate on Working Methods, India’s Permanent representative to the UN, Kamboj attempted to summarise India’s main concerns on the need to improve the working methods of the Security Council.

Earlier in August, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said keeping India out of the permanent membership of the UNSC would only call the credibility of the international organisation into question. Ambassador Kamboj also said that the Council will “never be good enough” by merely “fixing the working methods”.

In August, at the BRICS Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also emphasized undertaking reforms in the UNSC. The BRICS joint statement also called for UNSC reforms and affirmed support for the aspirations of emerging and developing countries like India, Brazil and South Africa.

The statement emphasized the need for reforms in the UNSC to make it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships.

Meanwhile, on Guterres’s participation in the upcoming G20, Summit in Delhi, Dujarric said, "The Secretary-General will be going to the G20. He looks forward to participating under India's leadership. The theme of the G20, of bringing One Family, One Planet, One Earth, is very important. We are living in a multipolar world, but multipolarity by itself will not solve the issue. We need to fight against fragmentation, and the G20 has an opportunity to do that. Secretary-General also expects quite a lot from the G20 nations, which are the 20 leading economies of the world."

The UN Chief further spoke on India's G20 Presidency and said that he is confident that India will do everything possible to make sure that the geopolitical divide that exists, overcome and that the G20 can conclude with possible results. ANI

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