India has strongly opposed the idea of using religion or faith as the basis for granting representation in a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC), calling it contrary to the widely accepted principle of regional representation.
Speaking at the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) meeting on Security Council reforms, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador P Harish, said that such proposals go against the long-standing foundation of regional balance within the Council.
He stated that introducing religion or faith into the selection criteria adds unnecessary complexity and undermines the reform process.
Harish also criticised those who oppose text-based negotiations for reform. He said their refusal to engage constructively shows a lack of real commitment to meaningful change. According to him, the argument that expanding the Council would harm its efficiency is only a way to delay or block progress.
India and its allies in the G4 group—Brazil, Germany, Japan and India—maintain that any real reform must include expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories.
The G4 argues that limiting changes to non-permanent members would preserve the status quo and fail to address underrepresentation, especially from developing nations and regions like Africa.
Currently, the Security Council has 15 members—five of them permanent with veto powers: China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States. The remaining 10 members are elected for two-year terms. India last served as a non-permanent member in 2021-2022.
The G4 has proposed expanding the Council to 25 or 26 members. Under their plan, there would be 11 permanent members and 14 or 15 non-permanent ones. They believe this change would make the Council more balanced, inclusive and representative of today’s world.
In his remarks, Harish stressed that reforms should not be guided by new identity-based criteria like religion, which were never part of the original UN framework. He said that discussions must instead stay focused on regional representation and fairness.
Delivering a joint statement on behalf of the G4, Harish highlighted that the present structure of the Security Council belongs to a past era. He added that the current global situation calls for urgent changes to the Council’s setup.
The G4 urged the IGN chair to begin formal, text-based negotiations before the end of the current round of discussions. They also emphasised that the decision on which countries will become permanent members must be taken by the General Assembly through a fair and democratic process.
However, not all UN member states agree with the G4’s approach. The Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group—which includes countries such as Italy, Pakistan, Mexico and South Korea—has consistently opposed increasing the number of permanent members.
The UfC instead supports a 27-member Council made up entirely of non-permanent members.
Meanwhile, Bahrain, speaking on behalf of the Arab group, demanded full Arab representation in both permanent and non-permanent categories.
The group argued that many of the Security Council’s agenda items directly concern the Arab region and that its population size and UN membership numbers justify greater representation.
France, on the other hand, reiterated its support for India and other G4 nations to receive permanent seats. France’s Deputy Permanent Representative, Jay Dharmadhikari, said that future permanent members should be granted all the rights associated with that status, including the power of veto.
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