Hariom Singh asked: What are the specific arguments offered by countries particularly opposed to India's candidature for the permanent seat in the UN Security Council?

Arpita Anant replies: It would not be appropriate to phrase the question in this manner. No country has out rightly opposed India’s candidature; though it can be assumed that Pakistan and China (and perhaps some others too) would not be particularly happy with India securing a permanent seat in the Security Council.

Opposition to India’s candidature is part and parcel of several countries’ principled position on the subject of expansion of the Security Council. One cannot of course rule out the realpolitik considerations behind these principled positions. So, for instance, China would like an expansion of the permanent members of the Security Council, but only supports the candidature of African countries. Pakistan, which had endorsed the general idea of expansion in 1992, later became a part of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) Group that only supports expansion of seats in the non-permanent category. Also, both the US and Russia prefer a limited expansion based on merits of individual countries.

Posted on February 12, 2016