U.N. Security Council reform is a membership-driven issue: General Assembly President Shahid

The G4 nations of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan have reaffirmed that it is “indispensable” to reform the Security Council through an expansion in permanent and non-permanent seats

President of the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly Abdulla Shahid has said that the long-pending reform of the Security Council is a membership-driven issue and he will soon appoint facilitators for the negotiating process.

India, currently in the Security Council as a non-permanent member for a two-year term, has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Council. India has been saying that it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the 15-member Council which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st century.

"This is a question that has been once again asked many many times and I can understand why it has been asked so many times because the Security Council reform is an issue that has been on the agenda or the plate of the General Assembly for far too long,” Mr. Shahid said in his first press conference here on October 1 while responding to a question on the long-delayed UNSC reform process.