Krishna to arrive in UN; Security Council reform tops agenda

This is Krishna's first visit to the United Nations since India became a non-permanent member on the Security Council last month after a gap of 19 years.

Krishna is set to meet foreign ministers of three other Security Council aspirants – Brazil, Japan and Germany tomorrow. Following the meeting, the G4 countries are expected to produce an outcome document on their discussions.

The four ministers will also meet General Assembly President Joseph Deiss to discuss Security Council reforms. Deiss has spoken out strongly in favor of reform. Last month he said, "the situation for the moment is quite complex still and I hope that during this year we will at least be able to bring the negotiations, real negotiations under way."

Krishna will also attend a high-level meeting tomorrow on the linkages between international security and development in the Security Council, hosted by Brazil, which holds the presidency of the Council for February, and chaired by Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota.

Security Council reform is also one of the subjects that Krishna will discuss in his first meeting later today with the members of the L69 group, which is a diverse group of countries from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific that want to reform the Council.

The L69 Group, headed by Jamaica, supports India's position that the Council's permanent and non-permanent categories should both be expanded. "It is only through such expansion which addresses the lack of representation among African, Asian and Latin American countries, that we can achieve a more representative, legitimate, credible and effective council," Jamaica's Ambassador Raymond Wolfe told the General Assembly last year.

This position, however, was not reflected in the latest five page document, which is a product of ongoing text based negotiations that is being chaired by Zahir Tanin, Afghanistan's envoy to the UN.

While welcoming the shorter text as a step forward, Indian envoy Hardeep Singh Puri said New Delhi was "unhappy" that its position of expansion in both categories was not stated "boldly" enough in the new text.

The Security Council reform process has been going on for almost two decades. But basic questions are yet to be resolved, which include how many new seats should be created, who gets these seats and when should the veto power kick in.

Except Japan, the three other G4 countries are currently on the Council serving as non-permanent members and they are hoping to set the stage for becoming permanent members before their terms expire.

On the issue of veto, Puri reiterated the old G4 position that the new permanent members don’t have veto power to start with but acquire it after a few years following a review of the situation.

The Indian envoy, however, emphasized that the potential new members of the Council would not accept being treated as "second class citizens" and they would not accept lesser license than the older members. "That will not be acceptable to our domestic constituency," he said.

On Friday, Krishna will also meet leaders of Brazil and South Africa, which is also a Security Council aspirant and is currently serving as a non-permanent member. The group of these three countries is called IBSA. Krishna is also expected to have a couple of bilateral meetings.

The minister, however, does not have a meeting scheduled with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon but could meet him during a lunch hosted by Minister Patriota on Friday.