Adding permanent members would enhance UNSC’s paralysis: Pakistan

NEW YORK: Pakistan has warned the UN Security Council (UNSC) that adding new permanent members would “multiply the prospects of paralysis” in the council.

Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram underlined Islamabad’s preferences for UNSC reforms at an informal meeting of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) in New York on Monday.

The decades-long debate got a new impetus last week when Russia vetoed a US-backed resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine. Russia, Britain, China, France and the United States are the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto powers.

Pakistan is a core member of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group, which accepts the five permanent members but rejects further increases. Instead, it suggests increasing non-permanent members to 20. Created in July 2005, the group now has more than 120 states, with Italy as its coordinator.