Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said Pakistan was strongly against the proposal to increase the number of permanent members of UN Security Council (UNSC) and stressed the agenda of UN reforms should not be hijacked. "We oppose the expansion of UNSC and veto power in principle as we believe strongly in the principle of sovereign equality of states," Kasuri told the Chinese news agency Xinhua in an interview here.
Kasuri said Pakistan along with Italy, took the lead in uniting the countries opposed to the expansion and was trying to build a "broad consensus."
He urged the Group of Four (G4); Germany, Japan, India and Brazil that were striving for permanent seats, not to stir up division in the world body.
Germany, Japan, India and Brazil have circulated a draft resolution calling for an increase of 10 seats in the UNSC; six new permanent seats and four non-permanent ones. They are determined to present the draft at the UN General Assembly meeting in July.
When asked about his remarks last week that the agenda of the UN reform was being "hijacked," Kasuri said, "No one is talking about the UN reform and the entire focus is on adding more seats to the Security Council."
He said there was a need to adopt a "holistic approach" and very in-depth discussions on the UN reform, which should promote democracy, efficiency and accountability with a stress on development. However it was not happening, Kasuri regretted.
On Pakistan's position, Kasuri said his country favoured the Plan-B that was against having additional permanent members in the UNSC, but it was also willing to view other proposals closer to Plan-B but not to that of the G4.
He made it clear that the position had nothing to do with the fact that India was desirous of getting a permanent seat. "Our position is based on principles," he said, adding Pakistan and India had been engaged in dialogue to resolve their outstanding issues and improve ties.
As for the Sino-Pak ties, Kasuri considered the signing of the Pak-China strategic agreement on establishing friendly and good-neighbourly relations in April as a 'major event'.
"It will put in place an institutional mechanism to discuss all strategic issues in a systematic way and take into account each others' concerns," Kasuri said.
He thanked China for its support for Pakistan in getting an observer status in the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), which was founded in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO would make a formal decision on the issue at the summit scheduled for July in Astana.
About Kashmir issue, Kasuri said Pakistan was prepared to show flexibility provided India were willing to do the same
"We need to focus on poverty reduction, rather on defence expenditure," he said but added that it would not do so unilaterally.
On Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that the time had come to make efforts to convert Siachen, the highest battlefield in the world, into a 'peace mountain', Kasuri said that Pakistan welcomed the statement and had the same desire.
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