The members of the Council voted on the resolution.
The "group of four" comprising Japan, India, Germany and Brazil continued to promote the strategy of increasing both the permanent and non-permanent members at the General Assembly's session on Security Council reform today. They insisted that this was the only way to achieve genuine reform of the Council and to give it legitimacy, representativeness, responsiveness and effectiveness.
Progress in reform has been slow
The UN Security Council was established in 1945. At that time, the victorious countries of World War II, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China were given five permanent seats on the Security Council, or the "P5," "because they played a key role in the founding of the United Nations." They are able to represent all Member States of the United Nations, have "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security", and have a special vote, the so-called "veto", and resolutions or decisions cannot be adopted as long as any one of the P5 votes against them.
Seventy-five years have passed, the world and geopolitical situation have changed dramatically, but the composition and structure of the Security Council have remained unchanged, with the only reform taking place in 1965 with the amendment of the Charter of the United Nations, which increased the number of non-permanent seats from six to 10.
Speaking on behalf of the Group of Four (G-4) at the General Assembly meeting of the General Assembly today on equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council, Sérgio Danese, Brazil's Permanent Representative to the United Nations said that the substance of the current revised draft document on Security Council reform is almost identical to last year's. This document is a reminder that there can be no real progress without changing our working methods. He said that the G-4 would formally submit a comprehensive list of written comments and suggestions and looked forward to further substantive debate on those issues.
Japan: Increase both permanent and non-permanent members
Calls and motions for reform of the Security Council have been around for a long time, and over the course of a long process, a number of groups of countries with the same position have gradually emerged, represented by the "group of four" that are eager to join the ranks of permanent members. The four countries are: Japan, Germany, India and Brazil.
In his statement, YAMAZAKI Kazuyuki, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, said that Japan believed that the following ideas currently enjoy the support of the majority of Member States: 1) the expansion of the categories of permanent and non-permanent members to better reflect contemporary realities, and 2) voluntary restrictions on the exercise of the veto in certain circumstances.
India: Increasing the number of non-permanent members alone is not the best policy
In her statement, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj, said India was in favour of increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council. In short, there is a need for a reformed Council that better reflects the geographical and developmental diversity of today's United Nations. In the Council, developing countries and the vast majority of underrepresented regions, including Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, can also find their rightful place at the horseshoe table. To that end, the expansion of the Council in both categories of membership is absolutely necessary.
Camboje said that simply expanding the non-permanent category would not solve the problem. In fact, this will further widen the gap between the permanent and non-permanent members, further consolidating distributions that no longer apply in the current geopolitical context.
Uniting for Consensus: Expanding the permanent seat is contrary to democratic principles
In response to the rise of the "Group of Four" and counterbalancing its power, the Uniting for Consensus bloc, nicknamed the "Coffee Club", developed in the 90s and opposed an increase in the number of permanent members of the Security Council, led by Italy and composed of South Korea, Canada, Spain and Turkey.
Speaking on behalf of Uniting for Consensus, Giorgia DE PAROLIS, First Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations, said that the reform of the Security Council is a member-driven process. Intergovernmental negotiations should seek a solution that enjoys the broadest political acceptance of Member States and should adhere to the principle of "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed".
She said that democratic principles must be translated into democratic mandates that could only be achieved through regular elections. Uniting for Consensus remains convinced that the creation of new permanent seats, as proposed by some, is completely contrary to democratic principles.
She reiterated the Uniting for Consensus group's view that the expansion of the permanent membership of the Council, with or without the right of veto, would run counter to the principle of sovereign equality and would deprive other Member States of the opportunity to serve on the Council more frequently and further hamper the Council's action and effectiveness.
Russia: does not support initiatives to limit the veto
The "one-vote veto" held by the five permanent members is often cited as one of the top issues in Security Council reform. The mere threat of the possible use of that power would force the drafting State of the resolution to revise the text or even dismiss the idea of a proposal altogether. As soon as contradictions arise within the "P5" and each side vetoes each other's resolutions, the Security Council will fall into a state of "paralysis." During the Cold War, the Security Council failed to respond, whether it was the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Vietnam War, or the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Some media have ridiculed that the Security Council is now so divided that it seems that the only consensus among the five permanent members is that they must continue to retain their privileges.
Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, said in her speech that the apparent convergence of the positions of the vast majority of countries, including Russia, is to expand the representation of developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America in the Security Council. In most other respects, Russia did not note the similarity of such positions.
He said that Russia does not support the initiative to limit the veto and continues to consider it harmful and destructive.
