Global Policy Forum

Future permanent members of the U.N. Security Council should "in principle" have the same veto rights as the five countries now holding the status, according to a draft resolution prepared by Japan and three other countries. But the so-called G-4 - Japan, Brazil, Germany and India - stopped short of demanding exactly the same privilege that the five have, leaving room for compromise by inserting "in principle" into the draft.

The four nations are planning to submit the resolution on the expansion of the Security Council to the U.N. General Assembly in June or July as part of a bid for permanent seats on the Security Council. The Security Council comprises Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and 10 nonpermanent members.

Sources told The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday that the resolution will call for six more permanent members - two each from Asia and Africa, one from Central and South America and one more from Western Europe or another region - and four more seats for nonpermanent members in the Security Council. No particular country will be named as a candidate.

On the contentious issue of whether new permanent members would have veto rights, the resolution, according to the draft, will state that "new permanent members should in principle have the same rights and responsibilities" as the existing permanent members. The vague wording about veto rights that included "in principle" was a compromise within the G-4 nations, according to the sources.

India insisted that the draft should give new permanent members the same veto rights that existing ones have. Japan and Germany were reluctant to insist on the same veto rights out of concern that doing so would increase opposition to the expansion of the permanent five.

Countries aspiring to be permanent members of the Security Council should be put up for election by the General Assembly, the resolution says, adding the election should be followed by revising the U.N. Charter to list the six new permanent members.