India for compromise solution on Veto power in UNSC reforms

India for compromise solution on Veto power in UNSC reforms
Betwa Sharma
United Nations, Jul 9 (PTI) Pressing for UN Security
Council reforms, India has suggested a compromise solution on
the tricky issue of what kind of Veto power the new permanent
members should hold.
The G-4 — Brazil, Germany, India and Japan — hold the
view that the new permanent members should have the same
responsibilities and obligations as the current permanent
members the US, the UK, Russia, France and China.
However, the new permanent members will hold off
wielding the Veto power for fifteen years after the reforms
come into place.
"The new permanent members shall not exercise the
right of Veto until the question of the extension of the right
of Veto to new permanent members has been decided upon in the
framework of the review mandated fifteen years after the entry
into force of the Council reform," said Hardeep Singh Puri,
India's envoy to the UN.
Speaking at the ongoing discussion on the reforms this
week, Puri said that this compromise would "ensure that the
veto does not veto Council reform."
At this stage only a small number of countries want
the Veto to be abolished altogether but a large majority would
prefer some restrictions on the use of Veto especially in
under certain circumstances like genocide, crimes against
humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian
law; war crimes, ethnic cleansing and terrorism.
The deliberations on the Veto are part of the growing
momentum to achieve concrete progress on UNSC reforms.
This year the discussion was kicked off with the
chairperson of security reform process Zahir Tanin, who is
also Afghanistan's permanent representative to the UN, asking
member-states to submit proposals that can be worked into a
negotiating text, which will be the basis for future
discussions.
In 2009, member-states of the UN finally abandoned the
'Open Ended Working Group' (OEWG) that had dragged on for 15
years without yielding any substantive results.
In March last year, the old talks were replaced by
the new "inter-governmental negotiations".
Speaking to PTI earlier, Puri even expressed
confidence that current negotiations will lead to tangible
action in 2010 and could probably yield results in 2011.
At the same time, Pakistan is not in favour of an
expansion in the permanent category.
Opponents of the expansion fear that more members will
further cripple the SC, which is often divided and fails to
reach effective decisions on peace and security matters.
These countries also argue that assigning more
powerful countries permanent positions in the Security Council
will not break the power dynamics of the past. MORE PTI BS
MYR



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