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 UN General Assembly that the candidates for permanent seats on an enlarged 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, saying they were unwilling to accommodate the interests of a wider UN membership.
“The inability to reach agreement on reform does not stem from flaws in the reform process itself, but rather from the attitude of a few member states unwilling to accommodate the broader interests and perspectives of the broader UN membership,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said on Tuesday, without naming the countries.
Instead of a ‘reform for all’, they seek ‘privilege for some’, he said during a debate on restructuring the Security Council.
“Now it is the biggest ‘roadblock’ to reforms,” added Ambassador Asim Ahmad.
Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas – the categories of membership, the issue of the veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Security Council and the Council’s working methods and its relationship with the General Assembly.
Progress towards restructuring the Security Council remains blocked as the G-4 countries continue to push for permanent seats on the council, while the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group opposes any additional permanent members. arguing that it would create “new centers of privilege”.
As a compromise, the UfC has proposed a new category of members – not permanent members – with a longer duration of the election period and the possibility of being re-elected.
The Security Council currently consists 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 the vital interests of all UN member states and must therefore be decided by the widest possible support of the UN membership, i.e. by consensus,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“Only an acceptable formula with an increase in the number of non-permanent members and fair rotation through general elections can provide fairer representation for all states in the council,” said Ambassador Asim Ahmad. “This is also the essence of democracy”
Opposing any addition of new individual permanent members to the council, he said concepts of permanency, privileges and special status should have no place in today’s UN. “The reform of the Council should therefore strengthen the voice of all UN member states.”
“Today, nothing is more anachronistic than the individual permanent membership, a category of members who unashamedly 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 vetoes have often been the root causes of the council’s paralysis and non-transparent working methods.”
The protracted Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) reform process was a member state-driven mechanism that has gradually widened areas of convergence and narrowed areas of divergence.
“We firmly believe that, for the benefit of the entire UN membership, Member States must be given the necessary time and space to unify and expand the areas of convergence and reduce divergences under the five clusters, which are inherently interconnected.”
The Pakistani envoy said efforts towards consensus have been hampered by demands from certain countries seeking permanent membership in an enlarged council.
“Such aspirations are contrary to the fundamental principle of sovereign equality,” he said.
The Uniting for Consensus proposal, he said, represented an objective, balanced, flexible and inclusive approach designed to meet the legitimate interests of all Member States and regions.
“The group maintains that expansion should only happen in the chosen non-permanent category, in accordance with the UN Charter. However, each region could be awarded longer-term seats, including the possibility of re-election.”
