India's bid for permanent UNSC seat gets a boost

India's bid for a permanent membership of the Security Council got a further boost Friday with the G-4 countries reiterating its position for the council's expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories.

During a meeting of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan at the foreign ministers-level on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, it was agreed by the four countries that such expansion was necessary to have more representation from the developing countries.

India has staked its claim to a permanent seat on the council, and has apparently support from a large number of member states, including permanent members of the Security Council, including US and UK, among others.

During his visit to India last year, US President Obama said in his address to the Indian Parliament that the US would back India's claim to permanent membership to the UN Security Council.

"Foreign ministers of the four countries -- India's S M Krishna, Brzil's Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Germany's Guido Westerwelle and Japan's Koichiro Gemba -- in a joint statement reiterated their common vision of an enlarged Security Council for the 21st century and expanded in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership."

"They took into consideration the contributions made by countries to the maintenance of international peace and security as well as the need for increased representation of developing countries in both categories, to better reflect today's geopolitical realities," Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said during a media briefing.

The Ministers discussed the initiative to promote consultations with the Member States regarding a draft resolution on expansion of the Security Council in both categories and improvement of its working methods.

The initiative has been supported by a wide coalition of Member States from all regional groups of the United Nations.

"The ministers  expressed the view that such strong support should be considered as the basis for further discussion in the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations to create the momentum needed for real negotiations among Member States on this all-important matter," the joint communique said.

The ministers also welcomed the decision by the General Assembly to immediately continue the process of intergovernmental negotiations in the informal plenary of the 66th Session, reaffirming their support to the negotiations.

The four will work in close cooperation with other member states 'in a spirit of flexibility' and press ahead with all steps to achieve a concrete outcome in the current session of the UN General Assembly. 

Diplomatic sources said that the five-page  text-based negotiations, a step ahead from the earlier open-ended negotiations, is expected to resume sometime next month and is expected to reach an outcome by the year end.

At Friday's meeting the ministers committed themselves to continue to work together to bring about what they described was the 'urgently needed' reform of the Security Council.