Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi Thursday said Pakistan will continue to play an active role to promote comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Speaking at the virtual Uniting for Consensus (UfC) Ministerial meeting, the minister said the reforms were aimed at transforming the UN Security Council into a democratic, representative, accountable, transparent, and efficient organ committed to upholding international peace and security.
He said, “A UN Security Council, which is more representative, democratic, transparent, effective and accountable is indispensable to address the multiple challenges that the world confronts today.”
The reform of the UN Security Council involved the vital interests of all UN Member States, and must, therefore, be decided by the widest possible support of the UN membership by consensus, he added.
Qureshi said the reform of the Council, moreover, should enhance the representation of all UN Member States, adding, “And, it should enhance equitable regional representation” in accordance with Articles 23 (1) and (2) of the UN Charter. Only an acceptable formula with an increase in the non-permanent members, and rotation through democratic elections, can provide more equitable representation for all States on the Council. Such rotation, combined with regional representation, offers possibilities for a fuller representation of members of various groups of states.”
The last UN General Assembly session witnessed some desperate attempts and manoeuvring by the G-4 in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) to push through their ambitions aimed at creating new centres of privilege, he observed.
He said it was a matter of satisfaction that the wider UN membership opposed such tactics as witnessed last June. Instead of attempting to impose decisions through precipitate proposals that can derail the reform process and exacerbate divisions within the Organization, it is essential to continue the dialogue in the IGN process, he noted.
He urged the member states to allow the necessary time and space to reconcile their positions on all issues, broaden the areas of convergence and reduce divergences, and thus evolve a solution acceptable to the entire UN membership.
“There is no other viable path towards a Security Council reform for all.”
Qureshi said confronted by the endeavours of those seeking positions of privilege to steamroll the process, it was imperative for our group to remain united and adopt a well-coordinated campaign in defense of the dialogue process in the IGN.
“We must anticipate and prepare for all possible scenarios. We should maintain and preserve the integrity of the membership-driven and IGN-centric reform process, that seeks a fair and equitable compromise solution in the interests of all Member States and enjoys the widest possible political acceptance of the UN membership.”
“We must continue to reaffirm that, given the fundamental divergences that exist on several key aspects, the process is not at a stage where a text can be produced to serve as the basis for negotiations that would result in a solution enjoying the widest possible support of the member states,” he concluded.