India seeks expansion of UN Security Council

United Nations: India has underlined the need for expansion of the UN Security Council saying that no change in its composition in decades is an “unnatural situation of stagnation” in a dynamic and rapidly changing international environment. India’s new Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Kumar Mukerji said the last expansion of the Council that took place in 1963 which saw a “modest” change in membership from 11 to 15. [caption id=“attachment_707544” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] While 80 more countries have joined the United Nations since then, composition of its premier body UNSC, which is mandated to maintain international peace and security, has not undergone even the slightest change. “This is an unnatural situation of stagnation in a dynamic and rapidly changing international environment,” Mukerjee said at the 9th Round of Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council here yesterday. “Reform of institutions of global governance, including the UN Security Council, and ensuring that they reflect contemporary reality, has been a matter of foremost importance to my country,” he said. Mukerji described as “truly bizarre” that while nearly 80 per cent of the work of the Security Council is focussed on the continent of Africa, the 15-nation body has never had even one permanent member from any of the 53 states of the African continent. Stressing that UNSC reforms are more compelling than ever before, Mukerji said it would be a matter of time when the body may “either have to willingly embrace change, or be made to accept change as a ‘fait accompli’.” PTI