Mint Explainer: How is India pushing to reform the UN Security Council?
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged world leaders at the G20 leaders’ summit to make global structures, including the UNSC, reflective of current realities
Over the past few decades, India has pushed for the reform of major international institutions such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Among other things, India has called for the expansion of the permanent membership of the body, which currently includes only five countries. The reform of international institutions also featured prominently in deliberations at the G20. Mint takes a closer look at the issue.
How is the UNSC structured?
The United Nations was established after the end of World War II to ensure global peace and stability. The UNSC was created as a group of countries that would take “primary responsibility" for ensuring global peace. Today, the UNSC has 15 members: five permanent and 10 non-permanent. The five permanent nations are the US, the UK, France, China and Russia. They are also known as the Permanent 5 or P5. By virtue of their national power and their ability to veto policy measures, they exercise outsize power over the functioning of the UN. However, countries like India have increasingly argued that the UNSC is in dire need of reform if the body is to stay relevant.
What are the problems?
The first criticism of the UNSC is that it was constituted over seven decades ago and last expanded in 1965, almost 60 years ago. The concentration of power in the hands of the permanent members, largely from the Western world, has been another point of concern. No Latin American, African or West Asian powers are represented as permanent members. In 2013 Saudi Arabia refused to serve as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the absence of institutional reform.
Ruchira Kambhoj, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said, "The current composition of the Security Council no longer aligns with the realities of our interconnected and multipolar world. The Council structure, designed in a different era, does not reflect the rise of new powers, the shifting geopolitical landscape, and the aspirations of nations striving for a fairer and more equitable global order."
How has India pushed for UNSC reform?
It has used multilateral platforms such as the G20 to push for the reform of international institutions such as the UNSC in cooperation with other developing countries. India is also part of the G4 grouping, which includes Germany, Japan and Brazil. These four countries have agreed to push for the expansion of the UNSC and to back each other’s bids for a permanent seat. India has also worked to secure the endorsement of other P5 countries for its bid for a permanent seat. So far, only China has not endorsed India’s bid.
Is there any real prospect of reform?
Experts are sceptical that any major changes in how the UNSC is constituted are possible, given resistance by major powers, who enjoy substantial privileges in the existing system. “While there is broad agreement among UN members that the security council’s makeup is outdated, each of the various proposals for reform inevitably leaves some aspirants alienated," writes the Council on Foreign Relations.
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