Nuke reform will be incomplete without UNSC expansion: India

United Nations: Warning that any reform of the United Nations would be incomplete without the expansion of the Security Council, India has asserted that mere administrative reorganisation cannot be a substitute for "genuine institutional" reform.

Participating in the debate on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's report on increasing coordination across the United Nations system, Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen said the world body first needs to consider reforming the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) and the 15-member Council.

"The most important event in the contemporary UN and BWI is the event that has not happened at all -- the reform of the UN Security Council and the reforms of the Bretton Woods Institutions. In the shadow of non-reform, which is the source of much of fundamental incoherence, system-wide coherence may hardly touch the periphery of real change for the better," he said.

India is a strong candidate for permanent membership of an expanded Council and has been working with Germany, Japan and Brazil, known as the Group of Four, for increasing the membership of the Council to make it reflect the current ground realities.

Seeking more information, including financial implications of the proposals, Sen said the reform of the world body should be aimed at making the system more responsive to needs of the developing counties through a better delivery and effectiveness of the UN development assistance.