Pakistan again seeks consensus for Security Council reforms.

UNITED NATIONS -- Pakistan has once again called for a consensus before changing the form and size of the Security Council (UNSC), countering India's effort to add more permanent members to the world body.

'The UN General Assembly has agreed - repeatedly - that the Security Council needs to be reformed through its expansion on the basis of equitable geographic representation,' said Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram.

'We need a more representative, democratic, transparent, effective and accountable Security Council,' said the Pakistani envoy while participating in the annual debate on UNSC reforms at the UN headquarters in New York this week.

Indian Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, however, told the General Assembly session on the reforms that a group of 13 countries that includes Italy and Pakistan 'have blocked the adoption of a negotiating text, unless there is a consensus, although a consensus cannot be reached without meaningful discussions which require a basic document'.

Envoy highlights need for a more representative UNSC

But Ambassador Akram argued that the reform of the Security Council involved the vital national interest of each and every UN member. 'That is why the General Assembly decided in resolution 53/30 that any decision relating to Security Council reform will be adopted by a two-thirds majority of all member states,' he reminded the member states.

In 1995, Italy, Pakistan, Mexico, and Egypt, founded the Uniting for Consensus (UFC) group that counters the bids for permanent seats proposed by G4 nations - Brazil, Germany, India and Japan.

UFC calls for a consensus before any decision is reached on the form and size of the Security Council. The founders of the group were soon joined by other countries and in a short time the group came to include about 50 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In May 2011, the number of member-states, which have participated in the group meetings, rose to 120. In 2005, the UFC group proposed enlarging the number of non-permanent UNSC members from ten to twenty. In 2009, they proposed creating...