India rejects contention on vote regarding UNSC expansion

Branding as recipe for inaction the contention that the Council's expansion awaited evolution of total consensus among the 191-member of the General Assembly, India's UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen pointed out that voting was a democratic procedure and provided for in the charter of the world body.

Intervening in the debate on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's reforms proposals on Friday, he firmly rejected the suggestion that there should be no deadline for the consensus building process, emphasising that it would just mean delaying giving representation to developing countries indefinitely.

Rejecting arguments of a few countries, including the US and China, that the UNSC expansion through a vote in the General Assembly would lead to dangerous divisions and affect its effectiveness, Sen asserted that these nations fear slightest erosion of dominance of the permanent five members and want to prevent democratisation of the powerful body.