G4 nations lament slow progress in UNSC reform process

Lamenting the very little progress achieved in the UN Security Council (UNSC) reform process, G4 members - Brazil, Germany, Japan and India asserted that talk now needs to be followed with action and that naysayers cannot be allowed to cast a "dark shadow" over the process and hold back the overwhelming majority calling for reforms.

"At a time when old challenges to peace and security have become more intense and the variety of new threats are expanding, we cannot afford to delay the reform of the body charged with the maintenance of international peace and security," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at a plenary meeting on 'Question of Equitable Representation and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council'.

Delivering the joint G4 statement at the meeting on Tuesday, Akbaruddin said while the emphasis on reform and change was a constant theme in the addresses during the high-level debate of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), "talk now needs to be followed with action to achieve credible progress" in the current session of the Assembly.


Calling for normalising the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) process, the G4 bloc said the IGN should operate under normal rules of procedure, as do all other UNGA processes. In the UNGA, work is done through give and take negotiations, focused on a document with the co-chairs or facilitators, acting as agents, for facilitating dialogue.