UNITED NATIONS: The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France closed ranks and gave a deadly blow to the aspirants of a permanent seat in the expanded UN Security Council, by refusing to contribute to a reform text in the UN General Assembly dealing with expansion issue.

For the G-4 countries—India, Brazil, Japan and Germany—it is a major setback while for the Uniting for Consensus Group (UFC), led by Italy and Pakistan, it is a vindication of their position.

The UFC supports the expansion in the non-permanent category of the 15 member Security Council, which could enable all member states to sit on the powerful body by rotation from two to six years stint. Non-Permanent members do not have veto powers while the permanent five could stop any measure by their veto.

On Wednesday Russia’s UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, weighed in on the expansion issue at a press conference saying more permanent members will not make UNSC more effective.

“This is now the acutest and most important issue of reforming UN,” Churkin observed in a interview reminding that UN Security Council was last expanded in the 1960s.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2015

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