Friday, April 1 2005 13:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: India has firmly ruled out accepting membership of the expanded UN Security Council (UNSC) without veto power, saying sans veto new members would not be able to fulfil the mandate of the General Assembly efficiently.

Responding to suggestions at a meeting attended by diplomats from more than 150 countries at the United Nations yesterday (Mar 31, 2005), India's Ambassador to UN Nirupam Sen said both in terms of decision-making and in legal constitutional terms "we cannot accept any discrimination between permanent members".

The meeting was organised by India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, a grouping named G-4 formed to mount pressure on UNSC.

G-4 diplomats pointed out that the number of member States represented at the meeting far exceeded the two-thirds majority of 128 needed in the 191-member General Assembly for the passage of any measure to expand the Council.

The meeting called by the "Coffee Club" headed by Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akarm, which is opposing expansion in the permanent category, hardly attracted 40 member States, they said.

Quoting from Akram's speech, Sen said even he (Akram) had implicitly supported the veto when he observed that new permanent members without veto can not withstand the weight of old permanent members without veto.

Akram had made the statement during a debate on the report of the High Level Panel on UN reforms and Millennium projects.

Sen said that the word veto does not occur in the Charter. It simply says the decisions in Council "shall be made by an affirmative vote of 9 members including the concurring votes of permanent members".

Wouldn't it look "somewhat ridiculous" if it was amended to read that there should be concurring votes of some but not of other permanent members, he asked.

Replying to a question, Sen said India would have no objection if veto is abolished. Then there would be no discrimination.

But diplomats pointed out that abolishing veto is impossible as the current permanent members are unlikely to give up their privileges, a point that Secretary General Kofi Annan had himself made. Hence giving veto to new one is the only solution, they said.

"An expanded Security Council should include, on permanent basis, countries that have the will and the capacity to take on major responsibilities with regard to the maintenance of international peace and security," it added.

Africa must be represented in the permanent membership and "we will work with wider membership of the UN to achieve meaningful change in bring about the expansion and reforms of the Security Council envisaged by the great majority of the membership," the diplomats said.

The group also explained that they are not only pressing for expansion of the Council but also for other reforms, which would enable the world body to play an effective role in the changed circumstances and make its working methods more transparent.