China blocks India's road to UN 'high table'

When US President Barack Obama was in India late last year, he offered unequivocal support for India’s case for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. [caption id=“attachment_3037” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Cul-de-sac: A road block in Beirut. Sharif Karim/Reuters”]  [/caption] Even so, India’s chances of making it to the high table were always quite dim, given the enormous challenges in reforming the UN. Yet, it was China’s position on India’s case that was always going to be a ‘curve ball’. China is the last remaining existing member of the P5 ‘Power Club’ (US, UK, France, Russia, China) that hasn’t endorsed India’s bid. And apart from offering anodyne statements that it acknowledged “India’s aspirations” for a bigger role at the United Nations, China has offered precious little. WikiLeaks documents, in fact, cite that in private conversations with US diplomats, Chinese officials had argued against “proactive” efforts to reform the UN. That cable quoted an unidentified Chinese official as saying that the “momentum” building up for UN Security Council reform was “not good” for the P5. Any “dilution” of the P5, he is reported to have said with candour, would result in a “P10” – in which case, both China and the US would “be in trouble”. Although that statement had been made in 2009 (in the context of China’s opposition to having Japan as a permanent member), it was always clear that China was the stumbling block to India’s aspirations for permanent membership. Now comes perhaps the clearest sign that China may be working actively to scuttle any meaningful reform of the Security Council. The Times of India reports that China has sent out demarches to some countries to go easy on Security Council reforms. The report adds that “since March, southeast Asian countries have been repeatedly reminded by China that UNSC expansion should take its time, and be the result of a ‘broad consensus’." That “broad consensus" may be unrealisable, given the clash of competing interests. Japan, Germany, Brazil and South Africa all want in. But France (and Italy) would like to see Germany kept out; China is dead-set against admitting Japan. And in any case the numbers game is weighted heavily against change. Nor is it just about opposition from China. Italy is evidently hosting a “coffee club” of countries (which includes – ahem! – Pakistan) to chart out a strategy in the UN that could effectively stall the efforts to reform the Security Council. Anyway you look at it, India’s aspirations to join the ‘Big Boys’ club at the UN just became a bit more unrealisable.