India underlined that it will take steps to see how the goal can be realised in the next session of the UN General Assembly

India has called for concrete action to achieve the reforms delayed for a very long time saying that the intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) on the Security Council are being ‘held hostage’ by people who do not want any changes in the United Nations (UN) agency.

In a letter written to President of the 74th Session of General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador K Nagraj Naidu said that the IGN is being used as ‘convenient smokescreen’ by countries who do not want any reforms, said a report by The Tribune.

“In effect, after more than a decade, there has been no tangible progress at all. In fact, the IGN process has become a convenient smokescreen to hide behind for those who do not wish to see any reform in the Security Council,” Ambassador Naidu wrote in the letter.

In the letter, India also underlined that it will take steps to see how the goal can be realised in the next session of the UN General Assembly, said the PTI report published by The Tribune.

India also expressed a strong disappointment over the roll-over of the IGN on UNSC reforms to the General Assembly’s next session due to begin this month. Naidu said that the roll over provides ‘pro-reformists’ with a Hobson’s choice which means taking what is available or nothing at all.

“However, strangely enough, instead of reflecting the views of 'pro-Reformists' like India and others, by putting a draft roll-over decision in this fashion, it is actually providing the 'pro-Reformists' with a Hobson's choice. This is indeed unfortunate,” he wrote in the writer.

He also said that the roll over has also fallen short of capturing the process in the IGN meetings held this year which discussed growing support for the Common African Position among other important issues.

India also demanded that the process should not be held hostage and those who want to do it should find other ways.

“Consequently, there is a need to ensure that the IGN process is not held hostage, procedurally and substantially, by those who do not wish to bring about reform in the Security Council. If this happens, and there are indications that this is already happening, those who demand reform will be forced to look for other ways to achieve the same end outside the IGN process,” he wrote, according to the report.

The 74th UN General Assembly (UNGA) Session opened last year in September and will close with the meeting of UN members this month.