UN to restart negotiations for Security Council reform on Jan 25

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United Nations, Jan 15 (IANS) The stalled negotiations for reforming the Security Council will restart on January 25, General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said on Friday.

He said that during the four months since he took over, he held negotiations with almost every group involved in the reform process known as Inter-governmental Negotiations (IGN).

"I listened to their views, exchanged views with them and then I appointed two co-chairs for the IGN process -- the Permanent Representatives Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani of Qatar and Joanna Wronecka of Poland and "they're going to start the Intergovernmental negotiations", he said.

"There's no doubt that the membership of the Security Council as well as working methods must reflect the realities of the 21st century," he said stressing the need for reforms.

Calling it a "complex challenge", he said the process is driven by the member states and "I believe that dialogue among member states is the most effective way to bring the reform process forward".

The meetings later this month "will also give some lights on what we will be able to do in the following months, refining meetings", he said.

The negotiations have been hung up for more than a decade by a small group of countries known as United for Consensus (UfC) that has blocked the IGN from adopting a negotiating text so the reform process can proceed. UfC is led by Italy and includes Pakistan.

At an Assembly session on reforms in November, India's Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti said: "They are using the IGN as a smoke-screen to stop themselves from being identified by paying lip-service to Security Council reform."

"Inside the IGN, nothing has moved for more than a decade except hearing passionate statements on the need for reform," he said.

India is a member of G4, a four-member group that includes Brazil, Japan and Germany, which mutually support each other for permanent membership on an expanded Council.

At the same meeting on behalf of G4, Germany's Permanent Representative Christoph Heusgen said of the co-facilitators: "We count on them to resist those who would like to derail the process, either openly or in a rather opaque manner. We count on both of them to live up to their role as 'facilitators' by doing their utmost to propel the reform process forward and guide the IGN into the right direction."

--IANS

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