China baulks as India steps up moves for UNSC berth
New Delhi, Feb. 13: The external affairs minister, Mr S.M. Krishna’s outreach effort at the United Nations (UN) to introduce a sense of urgency to the text-based negotiations for the Security Council reform appears to have set the alarm bells ringing in China, which has baulked at taking a position on India’s aspirations for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
On Saturday, Beijing hurriedly deployed its foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Ma Zhaoxu, to respond “to a relevant question”, which was diligently reported by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.
“Experience has proven that presetting results for the reform or forcing premature reform plans will not only undermine the unity of UN member nations, but also harm the reform process, which will not be in line with any party’s interests,” Mr Ma said, betraying Beijing’s discomfiture at being hustled into taking a firmer position on reform of the UN in general and UN Security Council in particular.
Mr Ma also said that UN member nations should seek a package of solutions for the reform, on the basis of broad and democratic consultation among member nations to accommodate interests and concerns of all parties.
The Chinese reaction came the day after Mr Krishna and his counterparts and representatives from the G-4 — comprising India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — met in New York and issued a joint statement, reaffirming their agreement “to press ahead, with all necessary steps to achieve at the earliest an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent membership categories of the Security Council.”
The Chinese spokesman’s remarks coincided with the foreign secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao’s remarks in New York on Saturday that China was not expressing itself openly in terms of India’s candidacy although she was hopeful that Beijing would not block India from getting a permanent UN Security Council seat when the matter came to a vote.
China is the only P5 (Permanent Five) member not to explicitly support India for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
Although the joint statement issued towards the end of Chinese premier, Mr Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in December 2010 said that China understands and supports India’s aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council, the growing support and urgency for the reforms seems to have caught Beijing by surprise.
Currently all 192 UN members are considering a five-page document, which is the latest proposal to come out of the text-based negotiations being chaired by Mr Zahir Tanin, Afghanistan’s envoy to the UN.
“Pressure is mounting here at the United Nations for the UN membership to finally face the challenge of addressing Security Council reform in a realistic manner, adjusting it to the current geopolitical realities,” the foreign minister of Brazil, Mr Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, said after his talks with Mr Krishna.
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