New Delhi: India on Thursday called for maintaining momentum on the expansion and reform of the UN Security Council, so that "clearly identifiable progress" could be made during the intergovernmental negotiations.
During the meeting with 68th UN General Assembly President John W Ashe, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also emphasised on the need for moving to a "creative phase" in terms of the Security Council reforms to achieve "concrete outcomes by 2015", the 70th anniversary of the Summit of the UN.
Reform of the UNSC have five major issues - membership categories, the question of the veto held by the five permanent members, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council and its working methods, and the Security Council-General Assembly relationship.
India along Brazil, Germany, and Japan in G-4 group are stressing the need for reforms and are supporting each other`s bids for permanent seats on the UNSC.
Khurshid discussed the non-paper produced by an advisory group under the leadership of Ambassador Noel Sinclair which injected more significant momentum to the process of intergovernmental negotiations and hoped that Ashe would make adequate use of it by commencing text-based negotiations.
Ashe, who has assisted in decisive forward movement on the subject of UN Security Council reforms and injected considerable momentum towards text-based negotiations, responded that he would like to ensure consolidation of the process before his exit later this year so that the next President could take it forward and not restart the process.
The two also discussed issues related to the post-2015 development agenda as well as matters related to UN Peace Keeping and other current developments on the agenda of the UN General Assembly.
According to sources, Ashe did not raise the issue of two Italian marines, who are facing trial for allegedly killing two fishermen in 2012 off Kerala coast.
