November 1, 2001
India has asserted that its claim for permanent membership in the expanded UN Security Council is "natural" as it is the world's largest democracy, a rapidly growing economic power and a major contributor to the peacekeeping operations.
"We believe that on any objective grounds, India would be considered as qualified for permanent membership," Indian Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma told the UN General Assembly.
New Delhi received a boost to its claim Wednesday 31 October as France and Armenia strongly supported India's case. Participating in the debate on the reform of the 15-member council, Sharma said that any increase in permanent membership should be guided by objective, and not subjective, selective or arbitrary criteria.
Rejecting any piecemeal approach to the expansion of the council, Sharma said all permanent members should be designated together by the General Assembly which, he pointed out, is the only forum to elect them.
"After striving for over eight years, if we were to agree to an expansion of the Security Council in the non-permanent category only or if we were to make cosmetic changes in its working methods, we would be doing a disservice not only to ourselves but to the organization as a whole," Sharma said.
He asked the assembly to avoid "seemingly simpler" option of promoting agreement only on those issues on which a broad meeting of minds might emerge.
Sharma said in countering threats to international peace and security, importance of the role of the council cannot be over-emphasized. Sharma said an "unrepresentative and anachronistic" council that does not reflect current global realities would find it extremely difficult to "effectively and credibly" face the "momentous" challenges posed to peace and security.
Besides, he pointed out that focus of the council's actions would be overwhelmingly developing countries and the impact of its action would be almost entirely felt in the Third World.
"This only reinforces the imperative of enlarging the membership of the council in both categories to make it more representative of general membership and, in particularly, the vast majority of developing countries," he said.
He reiterated Indian position that a comprehensive package which includes expansion of the council's membership, improvement in its working methods and reform in the decision making process is the only way to proceed.
"This would equip the Security Council to confront the grave challenges that confront the international community in the 21st century," the ambassador said.
Referring to the peacekeeping operations, he said the basic flaw is the absence of a "genuine partnership" between the council and the troop contributing countries.
This, he told the assembly, is further accentuated by the fact that very few council members are major troop contributors. Complex and dangerous operations like those in the Congo and Sierra Leone and one being envisaged for Burundi cannot succeed in the absence of this cooperation, Sharma said.
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