Nikki Haley says open to ideas on UNSC reform

New York, March 30

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said she is open to ideas on the reform of the United Nations Security Council but did not name countries such as India that could be permanent members in an expanded Council.

Haley, addressing a question on Security Council reform following her speech on Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), said she is still in “learning mode” and knows there is conversation of reform of Security Council.

“I’m open to hearing anyone on what they have to say and looking at it and going further,” she said.

CFR President Richard Haass asked her about the Security Council reform and said some of the previous US administrations had raised the issue of expanding the number of permanent members to include Germany, India and Japan to “better match” the realities of the world of 2017.

Haley, 45, was the fifth Indian-American to be appointed to a senior position in the Trump administration. She was serving her second term as the governor of South Carolina when President Donald Trump named her his nominee for the UN job this year.

Former US president Barack Obama had endorsed India’s long-held demand for a permanent seat on the Security Council, saying in a speech to the Indian Parliament in 2010 that he looked forward to a “reformed United Nations Security Council that includes India as a permanent member”.

India has for long been pushing for completing the reforms of the Security Council.

In a bid to get the reform process moving, India and other G4 nations earlier this month said they were willing not to exercise “veto” as permanent members of a reformed Security Council until a decision on it had been taken.

The other G4 nations are Brazil, Germany and Japan. PTI