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India, Africa underscore need for UN reforms

Addis Ababa, May 25
India and Africa today underscored the need for urgent and comprehensive reform of the UN system and backed each other's aspirations to become permanent members of the Security Council with full rights.

The eight-page Addis Ababa Declaration adopted at the end of the two-day Africa-India Forum Summit here said the African members of the UN Security Council and India affirm their commitment to coordinate closely during India's tenure as non-permanent member of the Council. “In this context, we underscore the imperative of urgent and comprehensive reform of the UN system. We share the view that the UN should function in a transparent, efficient and effective manner and that the composition of its central organs must reflect contemporary realities.” "The expansion of the UN Security Council, in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership, with increased participation of developing countries in both categories, is central to the process of reform and for enhancing the credibility of the United Nations," the declaration read.

Both the countries also recognised that the security of all nations would be enhanced by a global, non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

They reaffirmed their commitment to the consensus in the final document of the Tenth Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on Disarmament, which accorded priority to nuclear disarmament. The joint declaration also expressed support for an International Convention prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons, leading to their destruction. It called for negotiating specific steps to reduce and finally eliminate nuclear weapons, leading to a world free from all weapons of mass destruction as envisaged in the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan of 1988. "We also look forward to the commencement of negotiations on the Treaty Banning the Production of Fissile Material for Nuclear Weapons and Other Nuclear Explosive Devices in the Conference on Disarmament," it said.