Pakistan offered to bid for UNSC permanent seat

Islamabad considers move a ploy to weaken UfC group

ISLAMABAD:

Some powerful western countries offered Pakistan to launch its candidature for the permanent membership of the UN Security Council in order to break the ongoing deadlock to reform the UN’s top decision-making body.

Pakistan, however, rejected the offer as it viewed the move as part of a tactic by certain countries to weaken the group that is opposed to the expansion of permanent seats at the UNSC.

“Some powerful countries have approached us and said Pakistan should launch its bid for the permanent seat at the UNSC,” revealed a Foreign Office official while requesting anonymity.

The official said Pakistan turned down the idea since it knew the offer was not genuine but a ploy to push Islamabad to leave the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group that is opposed to the expansion of the UNSC.

Read more: Pakistan scuppers India’s UNSC bid

Last week, Pakistan-Italy led group known as UfC successfully foiled the latest push by the so-called Group of 4 -- India, Brazil, Germany and Japan -- to seek expansion in the UNSC permanent members.

The UfC comprising 13 countries, including Pakistan, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Argentina, Spain and Turkey, is lobbying against increasing the permanent seats at the UNSC.

The UN General Assembly recently decided to roll over the inter-governmental negotiations (IGNs) on the Security Council reform to the next General Assembly session, something that is seen as a success for countries part of the UfC.

The UfC, unlike the G4, has proposed additional non-permanent seats with longer duration in term and a possibility to get re-elected.

Brazil, India, Germany and Japan on the other hand have been pushing for expanding the current five permanent members of the UNSC to 11. They have been laying claims to become permanent members of the UNSC while proposing two other members from the African region.

The process of reforms in the UNSC began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas that include the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.

Read: UNSC reforms

Despite general consensus on expanding the UNSC, member states have not agreed to the specifics delaying the process.

A Foreign Office official told The Express Tribune on Wednesday that the process to reform the UNSC had to kick start from the UNGA. For any reforms, it requires a vote of the two-thirds members of the 193-strong UNGA. At present the official said neither side have the required number.

But the official was of the view that unlike the G4, the UfC is not merely seeking reforms through the two-thirds vote but a wider consensus in order to avoid any hiccup in the reform process, which involves several delicate and complicated steps.

The official said the G4 had been pushing for years for moving from “oral negotiations” to “text-based negotiations”. But Pakistan along with other countries of UfC have been opposing the move because agreeing on “text based” negotiations means locking the proposals and discussions, which the G4 desperately wants.

In the latest round of IGNs, the G4 pushed for “text based” negotiations but the UfC successfully thwarted the move. “I consider it as a major success for Pakistan and other like-minded countries,” the official insisted.

The official said Pakistan was not opposed to the UNSC reforms, but those had to be “democratic” and based on “principles”. The official explained that the UfC had shown flexibility in its stance by proposing the enlargement of the UNSC with additional non-permanent seats having longer duration in term and a chance to get re-elected.

“A non-permanent member term can be from three to five years and it can get re-elected,” the official said.

At present the UNSC has five permanent members with veto powers while 10 non-permanent members get elected for a two-year term.

The push for reforming the UNSC first came in 2004 when Brazil, India, Japan and Germany launched a joint campaign to get the permanent seats. But the process never took off since a consensus could not be achieved on how to reform the UNSC.

The latest decision by the UN to roll over discussion for the next UNGA session set to begin this September has angered India.