How China’s ‘smokescreen’ tricks the world against reforms at UN Security Council

In November 2017, the Indian mission in the United Nations was tirelessly working for a cause which was one of its kind. It was to ensure a simultaneous two-thirds majority of two principal organs of United Nations– the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council– for the re-election of Indian candidate judge Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice.

After several rounds of voting, the last few rounds of the contest put judge Bhandari against the United Kingdom's judge Christopher Greenwood, the latter a candidate from one of the five permanent member states of the 15-member UN Security Council.

The ambassador of a nation, who had promised support for the Indian candidate, was reminded by a UK diplomat of her country's need for the United Kingdom if their issue comes up in the UN Security Council, recalls Syed Akbaruddin, India's then Permanent Representative to the United Nations in his 2021 book, India Vs UK, The Story of an Unprecedented Diplomatic Win.

'India Vs UK: The Story of an Unprecedented Diplomatic Win' by Syed Akbaruddin, India's former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, documents the insider details of New Delhi's aggressive diplomatic effort that culminated into successful election of Indian judge Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice in November 2017| published by HarperCollins Publishers India in 2021

'It is the UK – and not India – which will matter then, as India is not even on the Council,' the ambassador of a nation who had promised support to India for judge Bhandari's re-electionwas told.

"Nevertheless, the warning is ignored and they decide to stay the course and continue to support us," Akbaruddin writes.

The call for reforms at the UN Security Council

The composition of the UN Security Council has remained unchanged since 1963.

As a principal organ of the United Nations, it has the “primary responsibility” to “maintain international peace and security” as specified in the UN charter.

It has five permanent members – UK, China, USA, Russia and France – and ten non-permanent members, who are elected through the two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly, in line with geographical distribution by region.

India has been an eight-term elected member of the UN Security Council.

But while the occasional status as an elected UNSC membergives India a definitive say in the pursuance of UNSC’s goal of maintaining international peace, New Delhi's voice and that of nine other non-permanent UNSC members, is not as decisive as the five permanent member states of the United Nations.

“Even elected members of the UN Security Council are not able to obtain decisions through majority vote in the Council because of the self-given veto power,” Ambassador Asoke Mukerji, India’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations told WION, while referring to the privileged “right to veto” that the five permanent member states of the UNSC have,to disprove the passage of any resolution or decision of the Council.

In November 1979, the first demand for equal participation in the decision-making of the United Nations Security Council was floated by the ten developing countries, including India.

In 1992, after the end of the Cold War, a Working Group began discussing the agenda of UNSC reforms.

In 2008, the UN General Assembly unanimously decided on fivetopics for UN Security Council reform, “including the issue of the veto”, Mukerji adds.

But since then, “there has been no progress on producing any proposed resolution for the UN General Assembly to adopt to reform the UN Security Council so far by amending the UN Charter”, Mukerji added further.

China-led ‘smokescreen’ in the Inter Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on Council Reforms

Since 2008, the Inter Governmental Negotiations (IGN) occur in the informal plenary of a session of the UN General Assembly. These "informal" negotiations are meant to address the question of equitable representation and increase in the membership of the Security Council.

By virtue of their "informal" nature,the Inter-Governmental Negotiation (IGN) on UN Security Council reform does not have any draft text on the table to negotiate.

“There are no records of previous meetings of the intergovernmental negotiations available with the UN. There are no deadlines set for the negotiations to conclude. Even the two co-chairs of the negotiations are appointed by the President of the UN General Assembly from the same side of the issue, i.e., the elected non-permanent members,” Ambassador Mukerji adds.

The only reference is the Co-Chairs’ Elements Paper, which includes the reference to the UN General Assembly decision on the manner in which Inter-Governmental Negotiations on UN Security Council reform are conducted.

But at least since 2016, according to Japan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ishikane Kimihiro, even that paper has remained nearly unchanged.

Ishikane Kimihiro, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, at the Informal Meeting of the General Assembly on the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform on May 4 2023 | Permanent Mission of Japan to United Nations

Japan, India, Brazil and Germany are also the part of G4 political cooperative alliancewho support each other’s bids for permanent seats in the UN Security Council.

"When I compared the first version from 2016 with the current draft, I found that it looks remarkably similar, with little change in substance. Shall we continue this forever?," the Japanese ambassador asked the informal meeting of the General Assembly on the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform in May 2023.

This, Ambassador Mukerji points out, is due to active opposition of China againstany amendment to the UN charter.

"The reason that this decision has the same wording from 2016 till 2023 is the active opposition of China against any amendment to the UN Charter to reform the UN Security Council through a two-third majority vote," Ambassador Mukerji added.

'To the victor belong the spoils': The privileged status P5 states at UNSC

On September 5, 2023, Ruchira Kamboj, India’s current Permanent Representativeto the United Nations, referred to the privileged status of the Permanent-five member states as "a continuation of the mindset of the post 1945 era: to the victors belong the spoils”, a reference to the way the permanent membership was established at the UN Security Council by the allied powers of second World War who emerged victorious in 1945.

“We can no more hide behind the smokescreen of the IGN in the UN General Assembly and continue to pay lip service by continuing to deliver statements in a process which has no time frame, no text and no defined goal to achieve,” Kamboj said in an Open Debate on UNSC’s working methods.

Slamming the “lack of representative character” of the Security Council, Kamboj pointed out that “to continue to deny member states of the Global South a voice and role in Council’s decision-making only lowers the Council’s credibility”.

Denying the Global South a voice in Council decisions diminishes its credibility says Indian envoy to UN @IndiaUNNewYork @ruchirakamboj calling for reform of the UNSC pic.twitter.com/TL8UgNlSSX — Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) September 6, 2023

India has been calling for a draft negotiating text, a clear deadline to complete negotiations on reforms in the UNSC, in a manner that it represents the voices of developing countries and unrepresented regions, including Africa, Latin America and the vast majority of Asia and Pacific.

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