Pakistan has cautioned the United Nations Security Body (UNSC) that adding more permanent members to the council will “multiply the risks of stagnation.”
At an informal meeting of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) in New York, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram emphasised Islamabad’s desires for UNSC reforms.
The decades-long issue gained new impetus last week when Russia vetoed a US-backed resolution asking Russia to immediately withdraw its soldiers from Ukraine. Russia, the United Kingdom, China, France, and the United States are the Security Council’s five permanent members with veto power.
Pakistan is a founding member of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) organisation, which accepts the five permanent members but opposes further expansion. Instead, it proposes increasing the number of non-permanent members to 20. The group, founded in July 2005, now has over 120 members, with Italy serving as its coordinator.
“As experienced only a few days ago, the veto severely undermines the Security Council’s efficiency, with a paralysing effect on its decision-making powers,” said Italy’s UN Ambassador Maurizio Massari, referring to the council’s decision-making deadlock on the Ukrainian situation.
He stated that, while abolishing the veto would be ideal, the UfC countries recognised that this was improbable. “As a result, the recommendation is to take a step-by-step approach to the issue of veto and try to identify the best ways to limit its use by the five countries that have this authority.”
According to Ambassador Akram, the principles and structures established to strengthen peace 75 years ago are “under extreme stress now.” The veto power prevents the Security Council and General Assembly from “playing a critical and constructive role in restoring and maintaining international peace and stability.”
He also mentioned various proposals for Security Council reform, such as standard two-year non-permanent seats, longer-term non-permanent seats, re-electable non-permanent seats, permanent seats for a region, permanent seats for individual states, permanent seats with vetoes, permanent seats without vetoes or deferred vetoes, and floating seats for one or more groups of states.
“We can also investigate possibilities for representing various regions in various combinations as a manner of accommodating the historical injustice against Africa, Arab countries, and OIC member states,” he said.
He also stated that the UfC would seek compromise solutions with all involved organisations in order to ensure the achievement of their goals.
