UNSC should include the world’s greatest democracies, says PM Modi at G4 meet

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New York, Sept 26, 2015: With an aim of securing a permanent seat within a in the United Nation Security Council, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met leaders of Japan, Germany and Brazil at G4 meet in New York. All four countries are pushing for a permanent seat and reforms in the UN Security Council.

 

Prime Minister Modi hosted Shinzo Abe of Japan, Angela Merkel of Germany and Dilma Rouseff of Brazil. The summit was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel where Modi is staying. Japanese Prime Minister Abe flew in only for this summit as he did not address the UNGA. This summit is usually held at the Foreign Minister level. But this year India decided to upgrade it to heads of government.

Speaking at the meet Modi said, "I am confident that our meeting will give push to reforms. The UNSC should include the world’s greatest democracies. Reforms of UNSC in a fixed time is an urgent and important task." He also termed climate change and terrorism as big challenges.

Modi noted that "some movement" had been witnessed recently in the decades-old endeavour when the UNGA took the "significant step" to commence text-based negotiations on the reforms but said it has to be taken to its logical conclusion during the current 70th session of the global body.

"Our institutions, approaches, and often mindsets, reflect the wisdom of the century we have left behind, not the century we live in. This is especially true of the United Nations Security Council," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister, while making initial remarks, pointed out that the subject of reforms in the UNSC has been the focus of global attention for decades but "unfortunately, without progress" so far.

"We live in a fundamentally different world from the time the UN was born. The number of Member States has grown four-fold. Threats to peace and security have become more complex, unpredictable and undefined," Modi said.

"We live in a digital age. The global economy is changed, with new engines of growth, more widely dispersed economic power and widening wealth gap," he said, adding "In many ways, our lives are becoming globalized, but fault-lines around our identities are growing."

He referred to the recent decision of the UNGA to commence text-based negotiations on UN reforms and said, "after decades, we finally see some movement. The 69th Session of the General Assembly has taken a significant step forward".

At the same time, he said, "this is just the first step. We should aim to take this process to its logical conclusion during the 70th session."

Talking about G-4, he said, "Our Group of four countries came together in 2004, bound by our shared commitment to global peace and prosperity, our faith in multilateralism and our willingness to assume our global responsibilities that the world expects from us."

In her remarks, Merkel said the G-4 was not any "exclusive group" and it believes in taking others also along in its pursuit of ensuring reform of the UNSC. Abe, while terming the meeting as a "golden opportunity", said there was a "mounting momentum for change" and "voices of great nations should be heard".

Rousseff also underlined the need for urgent reform of the world body.

China, already a permanent UNSC member, has traditionally opposed both India and Japan’s bid. Italy and France have been opposed to Germany’s bid and Argentina has played spoiler to Brazil. The US too after publicly backing India for a permanent seat has been waffling off late.