The UK has reiterated its support for permanent membership for India in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as part of an expansion of the international panel to ensure it can continue to rise to the pressing challenges faced by the world.
In an address to a UN General Assembly plenary in New York on Monday, UK Ambassador to the General Assembly Archie Young reflected upon Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statement at the UNGA back in September calling for UNSC reforms to ensure the global multilateral system is “more representative and more responsive”.
Besides India, Young stressed that the UK wants permanent representation for Africa, Brazil, Germany and Japan.
“The UK believes that a reformed Council, coupled with a collective, renewed commitment to the UN Charter, would strengthen the Council, so it can continue to rise to the challenges the world is facing; that is why we remain a strong supporter of UN Security Council Reform.
The Council must be expanded, to better reflect the world today,” said Young.
“We continue to support an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership to a total in the mid-twenties. We want to see permanent African representation, and permanent seats for Brazil, Germany, India and Japan,” he said.
Reflecting on the 2023 Security Council reform agenda at the UN General Assembly, Britain’s UN representative recalled the perilous and dangerous state of the world at the time and the challenge this posed to the multilateral system.
He noted: “A year later, the situation is even more acute, and the need to strengthen our multilateral system through reform, ever more pressing.”
“During his address to the UN General Assembly in September, my Prime Minister reflected on the increasingly complex and interconnected challenges the world, and our multilateral system, are facing,” he said.
“Conflict touches more countries now than at any time in the history of the United Nations, exacting a terrible human toll in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and elsewhere in the world. The Security Council’s role – and its responsibility for international peace and security – is as important now as it has ever been,” he added.
Young admitted that agreeing on a model of reform for the Security Council will be “difficult” but asserted the importance of tackling the issue.
“It is incumbent on all of us to work together, in the spirit of compromise, to deliver the change we know is needed. The UK is committed to doing just that, and we look forward to detailed and constructive discussions in the intergovernmental negotiations, which we hope will move us forward towards text-based negotiations,” he added.
The UK’s intervention came as India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Parvathaneni Harish also focussed his address at the plenary session on urgent UNSC reform.
“As we begin this year’s deliberations, we note that the reform of the UN Security Council was once again identified as a critical and immediate priority at the summit of the future discussions by our leaders. However, in spite of several decades of collective reiteration of this sentiment, it is disheartening that we have had no results to show in this regard since 1965 when the Council was last expanded in the non-permanent category alone,” he said.
