By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
India is planning a change in its strategy to push for reforms and expansion of the UN Security council with an eye on bagging a permanent seat in the expanded Security Council. New Delhi has barely six months left for its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council to end. As part of its new strategy India has decided to side with the L69 Group (comprising 41 countries from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific) leaving aside the G4 agenda.
The G4 (comprising Germany, India, Japan and Brazil) has also been pushing for comprehensive reforms in the UN Security Council to reflect contemporary power shifts.
Notwithstanding the fact that Germany and India discussed UN reforms at a recent foreign ministers' meeting, New Delhi has decided to support the L69 Group's agenda by August before the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
The L69 Group is a major bloc united by the common cause of achieving the lasting reform of the UNSC.
Informed sources explained that it was believed India would back the L69 Group instead of pushing for the G4 agenda. Earlier, New Delhi had described the L69 Group as the "friends of Security Council reform".
"The idea is to push for the much delayed UN reforms and SC expansion before September, when the UNGA meets," a senior source said.
The African members of the L69 Group will participate at the African Union Summit next month in Addis Ababa that will firm up its position on UN reforms. India will be an observer at the summit and will participate at the official level.
India believes that unless comprehensive reform of the UNSC is undertaken, the process would only be incomplete.
Speaking at an inter-governmental session on UN reforms last March, permanent representative Hardeep Puri had termed the group of 41 developing countries as cemented in its firm conviction that expansion in both the permanent and nonpermanent categories of membership of the SC is needed to better reflect contemporary world realities and achieve a more accountable, representative and transparent UNSC.
In September last year, India had supported the L69's letter for negotiations on UN reforms.
