Years of trying, but still no success for India.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=10204
India abandons chase for permanent seat on UNSC
Facing a certain defeat, India withdrew a new resolution crafted to pave its way into the UN Security Council as a permanent member just before the General Assembly’s 61st session was wrapped up on Monday. Instead, the 192-member assembly unanimously adopted a report by its president, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, that calls for further negotiations during the 62nd session to come to a decision on reforming the 15-member council by the widest possible agreement rather than a vote. Last week, India along with Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria tabled the resolution calling on the assembly president to open inter-governmental negotiations to make a decision in this regard by the end of this year. Otherwise, the sponsors of the draft warned that the text would be put to a vote. The resolution also demanded, among other things, expansion of the council in both the permanent and non-permanent categories. But the desperate Indian bid failed to generate support among UN members, frustrating New Delhi’s ambition to sit on the world body’s power centre with an elevated status. To hide its embarrassment, India tried to project that it was promoting the interests of the small and developing states. “The voices of the developing nations, the small and the marginalised have been heard and would continue to disturb the comfortable sleep of the status quo,” India’s UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen claimed.
Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram said: “Over the course of history, the real designs of seekers of powers and privilege have been to promote their own selfish interests.” The final report adopted by the assembly endorsed the approach advocated by Pakistan, which leads the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) movement, for the widest possible agreement on restructuring the council, not by a vote. In his intervention following the withdrawal of the resolution, Ambassador Munir Akram said that “a lesson has been learnt; that voting is not an option on the sensitive issue of Security Council reform.” He said that at a meeting, co-hosted by President Pervez Musharraf and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the two leaders called for extensive negotiations to hammer out an agreement on the vital issue of retsructuring the council to make it more representative and effective.
