Overhaul eight-decade-old structure to make UNSC more relevant: India

India has said the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must expand both its permanent and non-permanent categories to reflect contemporary geopolitical realities, stressing that piecemeal reform will not make the 80-year-old body fit for purpose.

“The overall endeavour needs to be on redesigning the eight-decade-old architecture to make the United Nations Security Council fit-for-purpose, equipped to meet the ongoing and future challenges and discharge its functions purposefully. For this, there must be expansion in both the permanent and non- permanent categories....,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, said addressing the annual open debate on the council’s working methods.

Harish called for “text-based negotiations in a time-bound manner” to ensure fair representation for under-represented and non-represented regions.

He said meaningful reforms couldn’t take place without correcting “historical injustices”, particularly with respect to Africa’s place in the council.

The diplomat noted that even as the UN marks eight decades of its founding, the UNSC continues to function with provisional rules of procedure, which he said must be aligned with the council’s stature. He added that outdated mandates, often retained for political convenience, strain resources and should be phased out through sunset clauses.

The Ambassador flagged a series of concerns over the distribution of subsidiary body chairs and pen-holderships, arguing that the selection process must become more transparent to prevent conflicts of interest. He also criticised opaque practices in listing decisions of subsidiary organs, saying member states outside the council remain “in the dark” on rejected proposals.

On peacekeeping, Harish urged the council to factor in the views of troop- and police-contributing countries, calling for “plain vanilla” mandates instead of overloaded “Christmas tree” mandates. Any expansion of peacekeeping tasks, he said, must be backed by proportionate resources.

India reiterated that the UNSC’s annual report to the General Assembly should be analytical rather than a procedural listing of meetings. Stronger coordination between the council and other UN organs, Harish said, would improve accountability and operational clarity.

He emphasised that reforms to the council’s working methods couldn’t be isolated from broader structural reforms. Only a comprehensive overhaul, he said, would allow the UN’s most powerful body to address current and emerging global challenges.