India Calls for ‘Fit-for-Purpose’ UNSC Reforms to Meet Global Challenges
New Delhi calls for ‘fit for purpose’ Security Council, seeks time-bound negotiations on reform
United Nations, Dec 16: India on Monday reiterated its call for comprehensive reforms of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), describing them as an “urgent global imperative” to enable the world body to effectively address contemporary global challenges.
Speaking during the UNSC Open Debate on “Leadership for Peace,” India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, criticised the Council’s outdated structure, saying that practices dating back nearly eight decades have increasingly hindered its ability to maintain international peace and security.
He noted that the current configuration of the Security Council is largely frozen in time and fails to reflect present-day geopolitical realities. “Structural and systemic elements in the eight decade old architecture of the Council act as retardants in efforts to maintain international peace and security. The current Security Council configuration is largely frozen in time,” Parvathaneni said.
Quoting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Indian envoy underlined the urgency of reform, stating, “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents.”
“Reforming the Security Council to make it fit for purpose to tackle contemporary challenges is an urgent global imperative,” he added.
Parvathaneni also called for meaningful progress under the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) framework on UNSC reform, stressing that the process has so far yielded limited results. He urged a shift towards time bound, text based negotiations to ensure enhanced representation for under represented and unrepresented regions in both permanent and non-permanent categories of Council membership.
India has consistently advocated reforms to make the UNSC more representative, inclusive, transparent and effective, in line with current global realities. Last month, Parvathaneni had also reiterated India’s position at the Council, highlighting the country’s contributions to UN peacekeeping and the need for greater accountability and inclusivity in global decision-making.
