United Nations, Feb. 5 (TNS): Pakistan once again criticized the new aspirants for permanent seats in an expanded UN Security Council for opposing reforms of the 15-member body based on the principles of democracy, and vowed to resist any move that serves the interests of a select few countries to the detriment of the larger membership.
India, Brazil, Germany and Japan are candidates for permanent members of the council.
“We will continue to uphold values of democracy, equal opportunity, and non-discrimination for as long as it takes, but we will not be complicit in any exercise that places narrow self-serving interests of a few over the collective good of the larger UN membership,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told an interactive session of the deadlocked Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN).
“We all agree on practising democracy at home but some argue against it at the UN,” said the Pakistani envoy while dealing with the points raised during the debate in the first session of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations.
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 question of veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.
