New York, Sep 26 (IANS) The Group of Four (G4) nations Thursday reiterated call for a reformed UN Security Council, taking into consideration the contributions made by countries to the maintenance of international peace and security and other purposes of the organisation.
The appeal came after the foreign ministers of India, Brazil, Japan and Germany met on the sidelines of 68th session of the UN General Assembly here.
“The ministers underscored that, almost 70 years after the creation of the United Nations, reform of the Security Council is long overdue,” a statement issued after the meeting said.
“They agreed that difficulties of the Security Council in dealing with international challenges, including current ones, have further highlighted the need for UN Security Council reform in order to better reflect geopolitical realities of the 21st century and make the Council more broadly representative, efficient and transparent and thus to further enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions,” it said.
Recalling the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit, in which international leaders committed themselves to an early reform of the Security Council, the G4 foreign ministers stressed the need to intensify efforts to translate, at the latest by 2015, the existing agreement into concrete outcomes.
“Recalling previous G4 joint statements, the ministers reiterated their common vision of a reformed Security Council, taking into consideration the contributions made by countries to the maintenance of international peace and security and other purposes of the organisation, as well as the need for increased representation of developing countries in both categories, in order to better reflect today’s geopolitical realities,” the statement said.
“The G4 countries reiterated their commitments as aspiring new permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as their support for each other’s candidatures.”
The ministers also stressed on the importance of developing countries, in particular Africa, to be represented in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of an enlarged Council.
In Thursday’s meeting, the outcome of the ninth round of the intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reforms was also discussed.
“In this context, the ministers reiterated that, given the overwhelming support by member states for an expansion of the Security Council in both categories of membership, permanent and non-permanent, this should be a key parameter in the negotiation process among member states,” the statement said, adding that the ministers called for the drafting of a concise working document as the basis for further negotiations.
The ministers also welcomed the decision by the UN General Assembly to immediately continue the process of intergovernmental negotiations in the informal plenary of the 68th session.
“They (the foreign ministers) looked forward to working closely with John Ashe, the President of the 68th General Assembly, and the Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations in order to bring about the urgently needed reform of the Security Council,” the statement concluded.
Thursday’s meeting was attended by India’s Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid, Brazil’s Minister for External Relations Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Germany’s Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle and Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida.