India has demanded expansion in both permanent and non-permanent seats of the U.N. Security Council, saying increasing the membership only in the non-permanent category or any of its other variants does not constitute reform of the world body.
“There cannot be any reform without expansion in both the categories of membership,” said Hardeep Singh Puri, India's envoy to the U.N., on Wednesday at a meeting convened to discuss the negotiating text for the Security Council reform.
“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.
In the closed-door meeting, 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.