UNGA President wants 'credible' Security Council reform process

General Assembly President Miroslav Lacjak says he wants a "credible" negotiating process for Security Council reform and not a time-wasting pretense.

"I wish to see it is a credible process, a process that member states can believe in," he said on Tuesday at a news conference.

"We don't want to create an impression that we are wasting time pretending we are discussing something without believing in the outcome of the process," he added.

The process has been stalled for more than a decade even though meetings of the the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) for reform have been held periodically.

The main hurdle has been the failure to adopt a negotiating text for the discussion to go forward because of opposition from some countries.

In efforts to move forward the process, Lajcak said, "I have met with all the groups who are actively taking part in the discussion about the Security Council reform."

In recent weeks the groups known as L.69 and Uniting for Consensus (UfC) met separately with him to put forward their perspectives on reforms.

L.69, made up of 42 developing countries including India advocates expanding the permanent membership of the Council.

UfC is a 13-member caucus led by Italy and includes Pakistan, which is opposed to adding more permanent members to the Council and has been a major force in stalling the negotiations by blocking the adoption of a negotiating text.

Lajcak underlined the importance of the negotiations for reform, saying, "This is an issue that is very visible also from the outside and for many people it is the benchmark by which they judge the readiness for reform" by the UN.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

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