India, Brazil, S. Africa urge speeding up UN Security Council Reform
3 Min Read
The diplomats - Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, top German diplomat Annalena Baerbock, their Japanese counterpart, Yoko Kamikawa, and Indian Deputy Foreign Minister Sanjay Verma - requested a plan for the UNSC to expand in permanent and non-permanent membership.
-
The UN Secretariat Building is seen through trees in a park area on the north end of the UN compound in New York on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023 (AP Photo/Ted Anthony)
During a trilateral meeting within the IBSA format on Saturday, the foreign ministers of India, Brazil, and South Africa slammed the ongoing international discussion of the UN Security Council's reform and called for making it an "urgent and top priority," said the Indian Foreign Ministry.
The annual 78th High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, which took place in New York from September 18 to 26th, was the backdrop for the 11th IBSA Trilateral Ministerial Commission, which was hosted by Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India, Mauro Vieira of Brazil, and Naledi Pandor of South Africa.
"The Ministers emphasized that while a comprehensive reform of the United Nations system remains a crucial international undertaking, the advancing of the reform of the Security Council should remain an urgent and top priority," the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
In a statement, the top diplomats of the "three large pluralistic, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic democracies of Asia, South America, and Africa" expressed their displeasure with the "paralysis" of the UNSC reform discussion and urged "a result-oriented process and... the redoubling of efforts to achieve concrete outcomes within a fixed time frame."
In order to obtain a UNSC reform that would secure the representation of developing economies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the IBSA bloc particularly requests that "text-based negotiations, based on a single comprehensive text" take place during the current UNGA session.
India and Brazil want permanent seats in the Security Council and African countries want a "permanent presence," according to the statement.
Earlier on Friday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, top diplomats of the G4 countries - Brazil, Japan, India, and Germany - convened and urged for a "comprehensive" reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and membership expansion.
In a joint statement published by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry after the meeting on Thursday, the diplomats stated, "[The ministers] concurred that the UN Security Council's inability to effectively and timely address contemporary global challenges reinforces the urgent need for its comprehensive reform so that it better reflects contemporary geopolitical realities."
The diplomats - Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, top German diplomat Annalena Baerbock, their Japanese counterpart, Yoko Kamikawa, and Indian Deputy Foreign Minister Sanjay Verma - requested a plan for the UNSC to expand in permanent and non-permanent membership by inviting developing nations, including those in the African, Latin American continents and the Caribbean.
The request comes in an effort to make the UN body more representative, diverse, and effective.
The statement relayed, "In this context, the G4 Ministers reaffirmed their strong support to the Common African Position (CAP) and emphasized that Africa needs to be represented in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership of a reformed and expanded Security Council".
