UNSC Composition: Pakistan group Moves draft on elected Members
By Khalida Mazhar - Pakistan Times Foreign Correspondent

UNITED NATIONS: The Italy/Pakistan-led group of countries, which oppose expansion of the Security Council’s permanent membership, has circulated a draft resolution calling an increase of 10 elected Council members with renewable two-year terms.

The move came on a day the lobbying for three differing proposals seeking the 15-member Council’s enlargement intensified as the General Assembly prepared to debate Monday a draft resolution by the four aspirants for permanent seats on the Council — India, Japan, Germany and Brazil and India — G-4.

Assembly sources said the debate started at 3:00 pm local [Midnight PST] and might run until Tuesday depending on the number of speakers. On Friday, Italy, on behalf of “Uniting for Consensus” (UFC) Movement, circulated the draft to other UN member states and the General Assembly president, Jean Ping.

The draft proposes expanding the Council’s non-permanent members to 20 from the present 10, with all non-permanent members on the enlarged council entitled for immediate re-election.

Current Composition

The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — and 10 elected members with two-year terms, half of which are rotated annually.

Under the draft resolution, almost the same as what was called “elements of decision” put forward earlier by the UFC, Asia and Africa would each get three new non-permanent seats, Latin America would gain two, and the Eastern Europe and Western Europe would each obtain one.

The draft contains amendments to the UN Charter to reflect the enlargement of the council’s non-permanent membership, and calls upon UN member states to ratify the amendments by Sept. 2007.

The measure is widely seen as a counteract to a framework draft resolution submitted to the General Assembly Wednesday by G-4.

The framework draft calls for an increase of six new permanent members and four non-permanent members on the Security Council. It provides for a 15-year freeze on veto power for the new permanent members.

The four countries are pressing for an early vote in the General Assembly after the debate, but diplomats doubt whether they would go through it — they don’t have the required twothirds majority (128 votes) in the 191-member Assembly for the passage of their resolution.

Moot of FMs

Foreign ministers of the G-4 will meet in London on their bid for the Council permanent membership. It was reported that they would probably agree to put the frame resolution to a vote in the 191-nation assembly around July-20.

The G-4 is also planning to negotiate with the African Union (AU) to coordinate their positions toward the Council enlargement, diplomats said.

The AU has circulated its own draft resolution suggesting an increase of six permanent council members with veto power and five elected members, two of them for Africa.

Following UFC’s strategy session Thursday, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram told reporters that they would participate in the Assembly’s in a “constructive” spirit.

But, he said, the UFC remained firm in its stand that any decision to reform the Council should be taken by consensus, not by vote, so as not to divided the UN membership.

“We’re not begging for votes; We’re asking for consensus,” Ambassador Akram remarked.●