NEW DELHI: Even as India continues to push for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, Pakistan yesterday firmly opposed its expansion saying it will only “satisfy the hunger for power and privilege of a few (of) those who want it”, Dawn reported.
“Adding more permanent seats to Security Council will only serve to satisfy the hunger for power and privilege of a few and not address issue of representation,” said Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN on Monday.
Lodhi was addressing a UN General Assembly session on Security Council Reforms.
India has been pushing for reforms of the UN Security Council. Along with other G4 countries – Brazil, Germany, Japan – India was hoping the reform process would be complete by the end of the 70th session of the General Assembly, which ended in September.
Yesterday, Pakistan’s UN envoy said the current lengthy deadlock in the Security Council reform process was because of a handful of states that are seeking to “promote a self arrogated right to an unequal status”. She added that creating new permanent seats would be “the antithesis of principles enshrined in the UN Charter”.
However, Lodhi said that Pakistan supports expansion of non-permanent seats in the Security Council to make it “more democratic, accountable, transparent and effective”.
Earlier this year, Brazil’s envoy to the UN, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, spoke on behalf of the G4 group.
“The longer we postpone a decision on the reform of the Security Council, the greater discredit brought upon the United Nations in its core function of promoting peace and security,” he said adding that “We can no longer go around in circles on Security Council reform”, PTI reported Patriota as saying in July.