Prime minister of India Narendra Modi has reported that the fury of the COVID-19 pandemic provides the context for the “rebirth and reform” of the United Nations, calling on nations to pledge to reform the global multilateral system to enhance its relevance and make it the basis of a new type of “human-centric globalisation.”
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Key-Points
UN now brings together 193 member countries and along with its membership, the expectations from the organisation have also grown as suggested by Modi.
It was the prime minister’s first address to the broader UN membership after India was overwhelmingly elected as non-permanent member of the powerful Security Council last month.
This was the second time that PM Narendra Modi addressed the ECOSOC. He had earlier delivered the keynote address at the 70thanniversary of the ECOSOC in January 2016.
The first meeting of ECOSOC took place in London in 1946, under the inaugural Presidency of Ramaswami Mudaliar of India.
Idea of the G4 Nations
The G4 nations comprising Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan are four countries which support each other’s bids for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. Unlike the G7, where the common denominator is the economy and long-term political motives, the G4’s primary aim is the permanent member seats on the Security Council.
Each of these four countries have figured among the elected non-permanent members of the council since the UN’s establishment. Their economic and political influence has grown significantly in the last decades, reaching a scope comparable to the permanent members (P5).
However, the G4’s bids are often opposed by the Uniting for Consensus movement, and particularly their economic competitors or political rivals.
There has been discontent among the present permanent members regarding the inclusion of controversial nations or countries not supported by them. For instance, Japan’s bid is heavily opposed by China, North Korea, Russia and South Korea who think that Japan still needs to make additional atonement for war crimes committed during World War II.
