Thursday, July 7 2005 18:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, seeking permanent membership of United Nations Security Council, have taken the first major step to bring their drafted resolution on expansion of the 15-member Council to vote in the 191-member General Assembly, possibly next week.

This is first of the three resolutions they intend to move to amend the UN Charter to increase the strength of the Council to 25, including 11 permanent members and 14 non-permanent members who are elected for a two-year term by the Assembly.

They submitted the draft resolution to the UN Secretariat yesterday, which will translate it into six official languages of the world body. This is a prerequisite for any document to be circulated to the member States.

They hope that resolution, which they had unveiled last month, would be circulated by Friday and they could call for a debate on Monday. If they so decide, The countries took the step despite ongoing negotiations with the African Union and strong opposition from the United States and China. But they were encouraged by the decision of the 15-member Caribbean Community, also known as Caricom, to support their resolution.

They also believe that the position of African Union (AU) is very near and hence they should be able to get the support of 53-member AU. The G-4 hopes to have discussions and sort out the matter within a few days.

Debate on draft; yet to decide

Diplomats of G-4 said they have not yet decided when to hold the debate but their intention is to bring their resolution to vote by the end of next week.

The framework resolution, which does not name any country for permanent membership, seeks to increase the number of permanent members from currently five to eleven and of non- permanent members from 10 to 14 to take the strength of the 15-member Council to 25.

The resolution provides that of the six new permanent members, two each will be from African and Asian States, and one each from Latin American and Caribbean States and Western European and other States.

The African Union has called for two permanent seats for Africa but diplomats said differences would need to be sorted out on the issue of veto. The Africans have asked for two seats with veto but the G-4 resolution provides that the new permanent members would not use veto for 15 years, after which the issue could be revisited. However, G-4 diplomats said it should not be difficult to reconcile the differences. For the grouping, support of the members of African Union is very necessary as they form a solid block of 53 in the 191-member Assembly.

So far as non-permanent seats are concerned, the draft resolution allocates one each to African, Asian, Eastern European and Latin American and Caribbean States. The African Union has sought five new non-permanent seats.