India pushes for expansion of permanent seats in UNSC

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UNITED NATIONS: India, which is seeking a permanent berth in the UN Security Council, has said that expansion of only non-permanent seats does not constitute reform of the world body and demanded that membership be increased in both categories.

In a closed-door meeting at the UN headquarters convened to discuss the negotiating text for the Security Council reform, India also pointed out that a vast majority of countries were in favour of expanding the current size of the world body's top organ from 15 to the mid-20s.

"There cannot be any reform without expansion in both the categories of membership," Hardeep Singh Puri, India's envoy to the UN, said last night.

"Equally, expansion only in the non-permanent category or any of its other variants does not constitute reform and is merely the perpetuation of the current inefficiency by the same ineffective means in vogue since 1963," he said.

India along with Japan, Germany, South Africa and Brazil is seeking permanent membership of the Security Council.