India, Japan, Germany and Brazil on Saturday declared themselves “legitimate” candidates for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as they pushed for its reform in a “fixed time frame”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on the occasion that the task should be accomplished immediately.
Hosting a summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff under the G4 format here, he said the UNSC “must include the world’s largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents” to carry “greater credibility and legitimacy”.
He said the four countries are ready to assume global responsibilities as he pressed for change, saying the world body reflects the mindset of a century “we left behind” and is not in tune with “new concerns” like terrorism and climate change. It will make it more representative and effective in addressing the challenges of the 21st century, he said at the summit — the first of its kind since 2004.
Modi noted that “some movement” had been seen recently in the decades-old endeavour when the UN General Assembly (UNGA) took the “significant step” to commence text-based negotiations on reforms, but said it has to be taken to its “logical conclusion” during the UN's current 70th session.
Joint statement
In a joint statement later, the G4 leaders stressed that “a more representative, legitimate and effective Security Council is needed more than ever to address the global conflicts and crises, which had spiralled in recent years”.
The G4 noted “with concern that no substantial progress had been made since the 2005 World Summit where all the heads of state and government had unanimously supported early reform of the Security Council as an essential element of the overall effort to reform the UN”.
Leaders of the 11-year-old grouping, which has been jointly pushing for UNSC reform and their entry into it as permanent members, “expressed determination to redouble their efforts towards securing concrete outcomes during the 70th session of the UNGA”.
They also supported Africa’s representation in both the permanent and non-permanent membership in the UNSC, while noting the importance of adequate and continuing representation of small and medium-sized member states, including small developing island-states, in an expanded and reformed council.
