United Nations![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/uno-pakistan.jpg\")
, Jan 30 (APP): Pakistan has called for\u00a0a “spirit of flexibility and compromise” in the long-running negotiations to reform the UN Security Council as progress is held up by the insistence for permanent seats on the 15-member body by India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, known as the Group of four.<\/p>\n
Speaking in the resumed session of Inter-governmental Negotiations (IGN) aimed at expanding the Council, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said the proposal from Italy\/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group, which opposes additional permanent members, is based on democratic ideals and\u00a0takes onboard\u00a0 the concerns and interests of all member states \u2013 small, medium and large.<\/p>\n
“We hope that this round of negotiations would see the triumph of collective good over the individual ambitions of a few member states,” the Pakistani envoy added.<\/p>\n
Opening the new round, the General Assembly President,\u00a0Mar<\/span>\u00eda Fernanda Espinosa, regretted lack of progress in the past 25 years towards restructuring the Security Council, and called for dialogue and flexibility to move forward.<\/p>\n “Intergovernmental negotiations began more than a decade ago, Ms. Espinosa said, adding, “And still, the composition of the Security Council continues broadly to reflect the world as it was in 1945, save for the increase in non-permanent seats agreed\u00a0half\u00a0<\/b>a century ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Ambassador Lodhi described Ms. Espinosa as an “ardent \u00a0and\u00a0 consistent\u00a0 advocate\u00a0 of multilateral cooperation”, and\u00a0 said, “We\u00a0 were\u00a0 privileged\u00a0 to\u00a0 listen\u00a0 to\u00a0 her\u00a0 articulate\u00a0 defence\u00a0 of\u00a0 multilateralism, based\u00a0 on\u00a0 mutual\u00a0 respect\u00a0 and\u00a0 shared\u00a0 benefit,\u00a0 during\u00a0 her\u00a0 recent\u00a0 visit\u00a0 to Pakistan.”<\/p>\n Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas — the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.<\/p>\n Despite a general agreement on enlarging the Council, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharply divided over the details.<\/p>\n The Group of four has shown no flexibility in their campaign to expand the Security Council by 10 seats, with 6 additional permanent and four non-permanent members.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the UfC\u00a0 group maintains that additional permanent members will not make the Security Council more effective and also undermine the fundamental principle of democracy that is based on periodic elections.<\/p>\n The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 non-permanent member<\/p>\n Stressing the need for\u00a0a meaningful dialogue by all sides to address their\u00a0fundamental\u00a0differences, Ambassador Lodhi\u00a0 said,\u00a0 “The\u00a0 five\u00a0 clusters\u00a0 of\u00a0 issues\u00a0 are\u00a0 not\u00a0 check-lists\u00a0 of\u00a0 items\u00a0 that\u00a0 can\u00a0 be\u00a0 conveniently\u00a0 ticked\u00a0 and\u00a0 moved\u00a0 away;\u00a0 they outline\u00a0 fundamental\u00a0 aspects\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 reform\u00a0 process,\u00a0 and\u00a0 must\u00a0 be\u00a0 dealt with in a comprehensive manner.”<\/p>\n Artificial timelines, the Pakistani envoy emphasized, could not be placed to pace this endeavour, as what everyone sought was the widest possible political acceptance by all member states.<\/p>\n “This is not a precondition to stall the process; it is in fact, a prerequisite for making meaningful progress, “Ambassador Lodhi said.<\/p>\n Welcoming IGN’s co-chairs —\u00a0Lana Zaki Nusseibeh (United Arab Emirates)\u00a0and Christian Braun (Luxembourg), the Pakistani envoy said\u00a0their emphasis on steering the process in an \u2018open, transparent and inclusive manner\u2019 would ensure the integrity of the member-state driver reforms.<\/p>\n Moving\u00a0forward, she said, the\u00a0need\u00a0to\u00a0present\u00a0a\u00a0clear roadmap\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0process remained equally important, and should\u00a0be\u00a0outlined expeditiously.<\/p>\n “It remains our earnest hope that this round of negotiations would see the triumph of collective good over the individual ambitions of a few member states,” Ambassador Lodhi added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" United Nations, Jan 30 (APP): Pakistan has called for\u00a0a “spirit of flexibility and compromise” in the long-running negotiations to reform the UN Security Council as progress is held up by the insistence for permanent seats on the 15-member body by India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, known as the Group of four. Speaking in the resumed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2220,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions\/2220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}