UNSC ''increasingly unable'' to respond to security challenges, says India at SCO

Beijing, April 24

The UN Security Council is "increasingly unable" or "sometimes unwilling" to respond to the current security challenges with tragic consequences, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday as she pushed for the reform of the world body's powerful organ.

Swaraj, during her address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting here, raised the issue of global terrorism and protectionism.

India, along with Brazil, Germany and Japan, has been seeking expansion of the permanent and non-permanent seats of the UNSC to make the powerful UN body more representative and reflective of the changing global order.

Continuing to push for the reform and expansion of the UNSC, she said: "it is clear to many of us that the Security Council is increasingly unable, or sometimes unwilling, to respond to the security challenges of our times, with tragic consequences.

"We must not lose sight of the fact that reforms of the UN will be incomplete, without reforms in the Security Council to make it more representative of contemporary realities".

"Since 2008, the international community has carefully nurtured the ongoing Inter Governmental Negotiations at the UN to take our discussions on UNSC reforms forward," she said.

An overwhelming majority of members have expressed their desire to see these negotiations continue on the basis of a text, Swaraj said.

China, which is part of the veto-wielding permanent five members along with the US, Russia, France and the UK, has not openly supported India's bid for a permanent seat in the reformed UNSC, and instead called for a "package solution" accommodating "concerns and interests" of all parties.

The meeting was also attended by foreign ministers Wang Yi of China, Khawaja Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, Abdyldaev Erlan Bekeshovich of Kyrgyzstan, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Sirodjidin Muhridinovich Aslov of Tajikistan, Abdulaziz Khafizovich Kamilov of Uzbekistan, and Secretary General of the SCO Rashid Alimov among others. PTI