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Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

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Topic: Group of 4 and Reforms

Why in News?

• Foreign Ministers from the Group of 4 — India, Brazil, Japan and Germany — a group that is seeking permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), met virtually late September 2020 to further their objective. The four countries stressed delivering concrete outcomes, in writing and within a time frame.
• The virtual meeting was held on the sidelines of annual UN General Assembly.

Key Highlights

• The Ministers reaffirmed their common resolve to “finally take decisive steps towards the early and comprehensive reform of the Security Council that was envisaged by Heads of State and Government in the 2005 World Summit.
• India, which, in January 2021, will commence a two-year non-permanent term on the UNSC, has long sought a permanent seat at the Council and is a proponent of other UNSC reforms — such as increasing the number of permanent (currently five) and nonpermanent (currently 10) seats and ensuring greater representation for Africa.
• India’s election in June as a non-permanent member of the UNSC, obtaining 184 votes, was a diplomatic triumph, notwithstanding that it was the lone contestant for the Asia-Pacific seat. But in a sign of the difficulties ahead to achieve New Delhi’s ultimate objective, reforms to the UN figured no more than as part of a broader vision in the declaration to commemorate the organisation’s 75th anniversary.
• G4 ministers highlighted the urgency of reforming the UN and updating its main decisionmaking bodies, in order to better reflect contemporary realities.
• The ministers insisted that only the reform of the Security Council will stop the body “from becoming obsolete”.

G4 Nations

• The G4 nations comprising Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan are four countries which support each other's bids for permanent seats on the UNSC.
• Unlike the G7, where the common denominator is the economy and long-term political motives, the G4's primary aim is the permanent member seats on the Security Council.
• Each of these four countries have figured among the elected non-permanent members of the council since the UN's establishment.
• The United Kingdom and France have backed the G4's bid for permanent seats on the UNSC.
• Japan has received support from the United States and the United Kingdom.
• All the permanent members of P5 have supported India's bids for permanent seat on the UNSC but China had previously implied that it is only ready to support India's bid for a permanent seat on UNSC.
• The G4 suggested that two African nations, in addition to themselves, be included in the enlarged UNSC.

IGN for UNSC Reforms

• The Intergovernmental Negotiations framework (IGN) is a group of nation-states working within the United Nations to further reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
• The IGN is composed of several different international organizations, namely:

• The African Union;
• The G4 nations;
• The Uniting for Consensus Group (UfC), also known as the "Coffee Club";
• The L.69 Group of Developing Countries;
• The Arab League; and
• The Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

• The G4 Ministers expressed concern, as per their joint statement, that after two sessions in February and March, inter-governmental negotiations on USNC reform were adjourned due to COVID-19, when meetings and deliberations could have progressed virtually and in writing, they said.

Change in Stance

• India is a proponent of text-based negotiations at the UN. Those more normally resistant to UNSC reform — including China – are hesitant to have Text-Based Negotiations (TBN) for inter-governmental negotiations on the grounds that the matter is too sensitive for text.
• G4 Ministers are convinced that time has come to leave behind debates based solely on general statements, without substantive text based negotiations actually taking place in an intergovernmental setting.