Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, speaks at the UN Security Council meeting on the Israel-Iran conflict on June 13, 2025. Courtesy: X@PakistanUN_NY
UNITED NATIONS:
A senior Pakistani diplomat told the United Nations General Assembly that candidates for permanent seats on an expanded Security Council – India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, known as the G4 – were blocking reform of the 15-member Council aimed at making it more effective, because, he said, they were unwilling to accommodate the interests of a broader UN membership.
“The inability to reach an agreement on reform is not due to failures in the reform process itself, but rather the position of a few member states that are unwilling to accommodate the broader interests and perspectives of UN members at large,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said on Tuesday, without naming the countries.
Instead of “reform for all,” they seek “privileges for some,” he said during a debate on the restructuring of the Security Council.
“That is the biggest ‘obstacle’ to reforms,” added Ambassador Asim Ahmad.
In February 2009, large-scale negotiations began in the General Assembly to reform the Security Council in five key areas: membership categories, the veto issue, regional representation, the size of an expanded Security Council, and the council’s working methods and its relationship with the General Assembly.
Progress towards restructuring the Security Council remains blocked as G-4 countries continue to push for permanent seats on the Council, while the United for Consensus (UfC) group, led by Italy and Pakistan, opposes any additional permanent members. arguing that it would create “new centers of privilege.”
As a compromise solution, the UFC has proposed a new category of members (non-permanent members) with a longer duration and the possibility of being re-elected.
The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms.
“The reform of the Security Council involves vital interests of all UN member states and therefore must be decided with the widest possible support of UN members, that is, by consensus,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“Only an acceptable formula with an increase in non-permanent members and fair rotation through periodic elections can provide more equitable representation for all States in the Council,” said Ambassador Asim Ahmad. “This is also the essence of democracy”
Opposing any addition of new permanent members to the Council, he said the concepts of permanence, privilege and special status should have no place in today’s United Nations. “The reform of the Council should therefore enhance the voice of all UN Member States.”
“Today, nothing is more anachronistic than individual permanent members, a category of members who shamelessly pursue their own national interests, represent no body and are accountable to no one.
“We cannot close our eyes to the historical reality that permanent membership and the veto have often been the root causes of Council paralysis and opaque working methods.”
The long reform process of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN), he said, was a mechanism driven by Member States that has progressively expanded the areas of convergence and reduced those of divergence.
“We firmly believe that, for the benefit of all UN members, member states must be allowed the necessary time and space to reconcile and expand areas of convergence and reduce divergences across the five groups, which are inherently interconnected.”
The Pakistani envoy said efforts toward consensus have been hampered by demands from certain countries seeking permanent membership in an expanded Council.
“These aspirations contradict the fundamental principle of sovereign equality,” he said.
He said that the Uniting for Consensus proposal represented an objective, balanced, flexible and inclusive approach designed to take into account the legitimate interests of all Member States and regions.
“The group maintains that the expansion should occur only in the non-permanent elected category, in accordance with the UN Charter. However, each region could be allocated seats on a long-term basis, including the possibility of re-election.”
