Narendra Modi to host G4 summit today, talks to focus on permanent membership of UN Security Council

United Nations: It is a big day for India as it attempts to gain permanent membership to the exclusive club of the United Nations Security Council. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host G4 head of states from Brazil, Germany and Japan to formulate a collaborative strategy to negotiate UNSC reforms.

The group of 4 are demanding inclusion in the Security Council as permanent members. Their discussions are expected to focus on attaining broad-based support for their pitch. The summit is significant as UN members will be meeting in November to debate UNSC reforms.

A top official has said that the G-4 bloc will give a "strong push" to inter-governmental negotiations for achieving early UNSC reform when its leaders meet for a summit on Saturday.

The G-4 summit, hosted by India, will be the first since 2004 and will bring together Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The leaders will issue a joint statement at the end of their meeting. The summit came together as an event only after the September 14 consensus adoption by the General Assembly of a negotiating document and the decision to commence text-based negotiations on UNSC reforms in the current session.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the "four leaders are meeting once again to give a very strong push to inter-governmental negotiations for UN Security Council reform."

The 193-member General Assembly had adopted by consensus a negotiating text that encapsulates all proposals made by various UN members include UNSC reform, the veto and number of new permanent and non-permanent members in a reformed Council.

The text will now form the basis for negotiations to resume when the Inter-Governmental Negotiations resume in November. Swarup said the G-4 summit assumes significance in the backdrop of the UNGA decision.

It is only the second time that a G4 summit is being held, the first was in 2004 when the grouping was formed with the four very important countries coming together to give a strong push to Council reform.

Swarup further said that UN reform is not restricted to an overhaul of the Council but also includes reforms in the world body's governance structure.

Underscoring that the expansion and reform of the 15-nation Council is very important, Swarup said when the world body was formed there were only 51 countries but today its membership has reached to 193 countries.

The Council has been expanded only once between 1963-1965 when a resolution was passed to increase the non-permanent members from 11 to 15. "This gives a feeling to us that the UN Security Council of 2015 is a mirror of the geo-political realities of 1945 and not that of the 21st century," Swarup said, adding that only a reformed Council would be capable to properly address the challenges of the present days.

"We have the challenge of cyber security, international terrorism. There are wars in three continents, but Security Council is incapable of addressing them. Why? Because it is neither representative and there are questions on its legitimacy," Swarup said, adding that there is also a need to determine the relationship between the Security Council and the General Assembly.