ISLAMABAD, June 25: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has said his country is strongly against the proposal to increase the number of permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and stressed the agenda of UN reforms should not be hijacked.

“We oppose the expansion of the UNSC and veto power in principle as we believe strongly in the principle of sovereign equality of states,” Kasuri told the Chinese news agency Xinhua in an interview here.

Mr Kasuri said Pakistan, along with Italy, took the lead in uniting the countries opposed to the expansion and was trying to build a “broad consensus.”

He urged the Group of Four (G4) — Germany, Japan, India and Brazil which are striving for permanent seats — not to stir up division in the world body.

“We also appeal the G4 not to divide the world community as the opportunity to work on the UN reforms would be missed, if there were a stalemate on this issue,” he said.

Germany, Japan, India and Brazil have circulated a draft resolution calling for an increase of 10 seats in the UNSC — six new permanent seats and four non-permanent ones.

When asked about his remarks last week that the agenda of the UN reform was being “hijacked,” Kasuri said, “No one is talking about the UN reform and the entire focus is on adding more seats to the Security Council.”—APP