UNITED NATIONS: The Foreign Ministers of the G4 have expressed "strong concern" over the failure so far of the negotiations for reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to make headway after nearly two decades and said they would expand their outreach to other groups and forums.
In a joint statement after a meeting in New York on Wednesday, Ministers of the G4, the group made up of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, said the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) framework for reforms "has been largely ineffective in forging any concrete outcomes towards real UNSC reform despite 18 years of activities".
"They expressed strong concern at the lack of progress during the previous IGN session as well," the statement said.
They "reiterated that discussions on reform need not be confined to the IGN and expressed their willingness to engage with the wider UN membership on this issue in other forums," the statement added. "The G4 will further collaborate and identify synergies with other reform-oriented groups with a view to developing a consolidated model that properly reflects the voice of a majority of Member States and commencing text-based negotiations as a high priority," the Ministers said. The Ministers "underscored that expansion of the UNSC in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership is central to such reform and that this position is supported by a majority of Member States". (IANS)
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