Washington: Pointing out that the international institutional infrastructure of the post second World War era does not represent the reality of 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair questioned the legitimacy of the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council in the current scheme of things.
"A Security Council which has France as a permanent member, but not Germany; Britain, but not Japan; China, but not India - to say nothing about of absence of proper representation from Latin America or Africa - cannot be legitimate in the modern world," Blair told students of Georgetown University on Friday.
“I used to think that this problem was intractable. The competing interests are so strong. But I am now sure that we need reform. If necessary, let us agree of some form of interim change that can be a bridge to a future settlement. But we need to get it done" the British prime Minister said in response to a question.
Asked to comment specifically on Blair's call for India to be a part of the permanent membership of the Security Council, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that while discussions were going on a number of aspects related to the United Nations there was no change in the current American policy - of pushing only for Japan at the present time.
"There are a number of different plans out there for Security Council reform. This was a hot topic just toward the end of last year. It's still a topic about which we have conversations with India, with Japan, with other countries that are interested in gaining a seat on the Security Council," he said.
"At this point, the only country for which we have come out in favour of a Security Council seat is Japan. And there's, at this point, no change to that" he said, adding, "At this point, we are working on all aspects of UN reform. Management reform: We've run into some trouble on that, I think, as you can see in the newspapers. And on Security Council reform, it is really at the point, still, of discussion among various states, various states floating various different proposals."
Blair focussed on different aspects of the United Nations reform that is currently of interest to many industrialised nations particularly the United States including expanding the role of the United Nations Secretary General and his power of appointments to the Secretariat and on how resources are dispensed with.
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"We should give the UN Secretary General new powers over the appointments, for example, to the secretariat. It is absurd that they have to be voted on one by one by the General Assembly. And powers over how the resources of the UN are spent," Blair said going on to make the point that perhaps there was the case for establishing a humanitarian agency that allows for a better prediction of an impending crisis and swifter remedial action.
"We should also strengthen the United Nations secretary general's powers to propose action to the Security Council for the resolution of longstanding disputes and encourage him to do so" Blair remarked.
The British leader on a visit to the United States also talked of reforms that are needed in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and analysed the reasons for obstacles to reform both at the institutional and at the country levels.
"What's the obstacle to reform? Well, it is that in creating more effective multilateral institutions, individual nations yield up some of their own independence.This is a hard thing to swallow. Let me be blunt: Powerful nations want more effective multilateral institutions when they think tho se institutions will do their will. What they fear is effective multilateral institutions that do their own will," Blair remarked.
"The European Union doesn't move forward unless its leading countries agree. That's the reality of power, size, economic, military, political weight. But if and where there is a common basis for working, agreed aims and purposes, then no matter how powerful, countries gain from being able to su bcontract problems that, on their own, they cannot solve" Blair said.
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