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India and its G4 allies have forced General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir to accept an amendment to the decision on rolling Security Council reform negotiations to the next Assembly session during a meeting at which he and Germany's Permanent Representative Christoph Heusgen clashed openly dropping the genteel style of diplomacy.
As the Assembly failed year after to make headway on the reform process, the intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) have been quietly bumped to the next session's agenda, but this time on Tuesday the G4 prevailed in bringing the issue to the open for a discussion and have the decision amended to reflect the call of world leaders to reinvigorate the reform process.
India's Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti declared, "IGN can no longer be used as a smokescreen today with this amended rollover decision."
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This was likely the first time that the rollover decision was discussed and amended.
Diplomatic sources told IANS that this development was a breakthrough because for the first time it puts on official UN record the discussion on reforms and the various stances because the IGN discussions take place in informal meetings without any official records.
The G4 had wanted the decision to reaffirm "the commitment of the Heads of State and Government representing the people of the world to 'instil new life in the discussion on the reform of the Security Council'."
Those words were taken directly from the declaration adopted in September by the heads of state and government commemorating the 75th anniversary of the UN's founding.
With several countries rallying behind the G4 demand for the amendment, Qatar's Permanent Representative Alya bint Ahmed Al Thani, who is also the IGN co-chair, formally proposed accepting it through a consensus.
Pakistan, Italy and their allies and China, who opposed amending the decision, backed down and with Bozkir accepting it, the amendment was accepted unanimously.
Tirumurti said that "by agreeing to include our leaders promise to instil new life in our role or decision, we are reaffirming once more that what we are engaged in in the IGN is not simply a series of academic debates. Our mandate is to deliver on Security Council reform, not just to discuss it ad infinitum."
In a spirit of compromise, the G4 did not press two other minor changes in the wording of another section of the decision.
The G4 is made up of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, which work together for Council reforms that would add more permanent members and support each other for permanent seats on an expanded Council.
Bozkir had circulated earlier this month the written draft of what in UN parlance is called an "oral decision" for adoption last Wednesday.
But Heusgen vigorously accused him last Wednesday of failing to consult other members and groups on the draft decision as previous Assembly presidents had done and unilaterally presenting it.
As the tide of opposition swelled, it was decided to postpone the issue to Tuesday.
