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Portuguese PM requests India’s membership in security council at UNGA
Costa argued in favour of a Security Council that has a broad view of security and fairly represents small nations during his address to the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
Antonio Costa, the prime minister of Portugal, demanded on Thursday that the UN Security Council be reformed to include representation for Brazil, India, and the African continent.
Costa argued in favour of a Security Council that has a broad view of security and fairly represents small nations during his address to the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
“We need a representative, agile and functional security council that is able to respond to the challenges of the 21st century without being paralyzed and whose actions are scrutinised by the other members of the United Nations,” he said.
“A security council that incorporates a comprehensive view of security. A security council where the African Continent, Brazil and India have seats. And where small countries are fairly represented,” he added.
During his address, the Portuguese PM said many children and adults globally have never known peace. “In Europe, we are confronted with an unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, in a flagrant violation of international laws, primarily the charter of the United Nations Nations.”
“We therefore cannot fail to condemn the Russian aggression and here to reinforce Portugal’s support sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Russia must cease hostilities and allow the creation of a sustained ceasefire and peace-oriented dialogue,” he said.
Costa praised the UN’s efforts, especially those of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to end this conflict and lessen its negative consequences, such as the food crisis.
The Group of Four (G4) foreign minister met that day and voiced worry over the ongoing lack of significant progress in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council (SC) reform, the same day that the Portuguese prime minister called for UNSC reform. They reaffirmed their resolve to make every effort to quickly start text-based negotiations in the IGN.
The Foreign Ministers of the G4 nations, including S Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister of India, Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Annalena Baerbock, the Federal Foreign Minister of Germany, and Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Foreign Minister of Japan, met on September 22 in the margins of the opening of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss reforming the UN Security Council.
The G4 Ministers concluded in a joint press release following the meeting that conflicts around the world and difficulties that are becoming more complicated and interrelated have highlighted the need for the UN to be updated and undergo reform.
They concurred that the UN Security Council urgently needs to be reformed in order to better reflect modern geopolitical realities, increase its effectiveness, and legitimise and implement its decisions. The inability of the Security Council to effectively address these challenges is a compelling example of this need.
The Ministers reiterated their commitment to tackle the matter decisively and with more urgency during the 77th session of the UNGA and expressed displeasure at the coordinated efforts to obstruct this process.
The Ministers concurred that in order to strengthen the Council’s ability to effectively address the complex and changing difficulties the world faces today regarding issues of international peace and security, developing nations and big donors to the UN must play a greater role and be more present.
