Expansion in both permanent, non-permanent categories of membership in UNSC absolutely essential: India

Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj asserted that on the issue of the size of the Council, there already exists a convergence among the members

India has said the expansion in permanent and non-permanent categories of the UN Security Council is "absolutely essential” to ensure that voices of developing countries and unrepresented regions find their due place at the world body's top organ.

Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, also said the expansion of both categories is the only way to bring Security Council's decision-making dynamics in line with contemporary geo-political realities.

The remarks by Ms. Kamboj came during her address on March 9 to the Informal Meeting of the Plenary on the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN).

“We need a Security Council that better reflects the geographical and developmental diversity of the United Nations today. A Security Council where voices of developing countries and unrepresented regions, including Africa, Latin America, and the vast majority of Asia and the Pacific, find their due place at the table,” Ms. Kamboj said.

She said to achieve this objective, an expansion of the 15-nation Council in both categories of membership is absolutely essential.

“This is the only way to bring the Council’s composition and decision-making dynamics in line with contemporary geo-political realities. If countries are truly interested in making the Security Council more accountable and more credible, we call on them to come out openly and support a clear pathway to achieve this reform in a time-bound manner, through the only established process in the UN, which is by engaging in negotiations based on text and not through speaking at each other or past each other as we have done for the last three decades,” she said.

The meeting was convened meeting on two clusters — the size of an enlarged Security Council and working methods of the Council and the relationship between the Security Council and the General Assembly.