China underplays Russia's backing for India's permanent membership of UNSC, advocates package solution that accommodates all parties

Beijing: China on Thursday played down Russia’s backing for India and Brazil’s entry into the UN Security Council as permanent members, saying all parties have “major differences” in the matter and instead advocated for a “package solution”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during his visit to New Delhi on Wednesday, backed India and Brazil to be permanent members of the UNSC. [caption id=“attachment_4339489” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] “We are convinced that the overriding trend of the global development is the objective process of the formation of new centres of economic might, financial power and political influence and India is obviously one of them,” Lavrov said. Reacting to Lavrov’s statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said member countries of the UN have differences over reforms in the world body. China, which has veto power in the UNSC being one of its five permanent members, has been stonewalling India’s efforts to become a permanent member of the powerful UN body for years, pointing out lack of consensus even though the other four — the US, UK, France and Russia — have backed New Delhi’s membership. Beijing’s all-weather ally, Pakistan, is also opposed to India becoming a permanent member. India, Germany, Brazil and Japan have formed the G4 bloc to press for their permanent membership demand as part of the reforms in the United Nations. China, however, has backed India for non-permanent membership of the UNSC for the year 2021-22. In his reply on Thursday, Geng said reform of the UNSC is very important as it concerns the long-term development of the UN and interests of all members. “Now all parties have major differences on this and we do not have broad consensus on the reform. So, China would like to work with other members to find a package solution that accommodates the interests and concerns of all parties through dialogue and consultation,” he said. He said the UNSC is the core of international collective security mechanism and any reform to better implement its duty enshrined in the UN charter and the reform should enhance the representation and say of developing countries so that more medium-sized and small-sized countries can participate in the decision-making process of the security council, he said.