India calls for UNSC reforms to tackle contemporary challenges, urgent global imperative’ ‘fit-for-purpose’
By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – India on Monday reiterated its call for comprehensive reforms of the UN Security Council described them as an “urgent global imperative” to effectively address contemporary global challenges.
India’s envoy to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, during the UNSC Open Debate on “Leadership for Peace”, criticized the Council’s outdated structure, noted that 8 decade-old practices have increasingly become obstacles to the body’s ability to maintain international peace and security.
He said the current configuration of the Security Council is largely frozen in time and no longer reflects present-day geopolitical realities.
“Structural and systemic elements in the eight decade-old architecture of the Council act as retardants in efforts to maintain international peace and security. The current Security Council configuration is largely frozen in time,” he stated.
He quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said, “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents,” underscoring the urgency of reforming the Council to make it fit for purpose in tackling modern challenges.
“Reforming the Security Council to make it fit-for-purpose to tackle contemporary challenges is an urgent global imperative,” he added.
Mr. Parvathaneni stressed that reforming the Security Council is a pressing global necessity and called for the Intergovernmental Negotiations framework on UNSC reform to move forward in a meaningful manner.
He said the framework, launched to advance Council reform, has so far remained largely unproductive and must transition to time-bound, text-based negotiations at the earliest, emphasising the need to enhance representation from under-represented and unrepresented regions, in line with current global realities.
“The Inter-Governmental Negotiations framework launched for Council reform, which has largely remained barren and bereft of productive outcomes, must move towards time-bound text-based negotiations at the earliest to enhance representation from under-represented and unrepresented geographies in tune with today’s realities in both the permanent and elected categories of membership,” he said.
India has advocated for reforms of the UNSC to make it more representative, inclusive, transparent, and effective, he noted.
Ambassador Parvathaneni also addressed the UNSC, advocated for reforms to make the Council more representative and effective.
He emphasized the need for transparency, accountability, and inclusivity, and highlighting India’s own contributions to UN peacekeeping.
