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How China is stonewalling reforms at United Nations Security Council

WION
United Nations, United StatesEdited By: Gravitas deskUpdated: Nov 18, 2020, 09:17 AM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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China is using the IGN as a smoke-screen to prevent identification by paying lip-service to Security Council reform

The United Nations celebrated its 75th-anniversary this year with the mantra that "multilateralism is not an option but a necessity''.

However, there has been growing criticism of the body, which has not been reformed in decades.

UN General Assembly president Volkan Bozkir on Tuesday criticised the Security Council, saying it was failing to respond to the world's biggest challenges due to "competing interests."

India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T S Tirumurti, speaking in the UN General Assembly, said ''Today's Security Council is an impaired organ. It has been unable to act with credibility essentially due to its unrepresentative nature. But then, what is happening inside the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) process, which we seem to be wedded to?''

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for an overhaul of international cooperation mechanisms adding that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is out of ''useful solutions''.

For years, India, Germany, Japan, and Brazil have been trying to get a permanent seat to the UN security council but the UN charter is such that it gives permanent members the veto power to any resolution, including the expansion of membership.

The members of the United Nations Security Council include the United States, China, Britain, France, and Russia.

While the first four have backed India's permanent membership, China has time and again stalled it. China has also stonewalled the IGN or the inter-governmental negotiations by laying out impossible conditions.

China is using the IGN as a smoke-screen to prevent identification by paying lip-service to Security Council reform.

During the debate on reform, the 193 UN members discussed the right to veto, the privilege of the five permanent members of the Security Council (United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom), enlarging the forum and its regional balance.

The Security Council, which can decide on international sanctions and the use of force, has 15 members. In addition to the five permanent nations, it has 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms.