India Presses Security Council Overhaul With Demand for Expansion and Transparent Working Methods

Overview

• At a UNSC debate on working methods, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said the Council must be redesigned to be fit for purpose through expansion in both permanent and non-permanent seats.
• India backed moving the Inter-Governmental Negotiations to a text-based, time-bound track and, alongside G4 partners, supports growing the Council to about 25–26 members with six new permanent seats.
• Harish demanded greater transparency in subsidiary organs, pointing to the obscure rejection of listing requests and calling for clear practices on committee chairs and pen-holderships to avoid conflicts of interest.
• He urged that the Council’s annual report to the General Assembly be analytical rather than procedural and said the body’s provisional rules should be aligned with its current stature.
• On peacekeeping, India called for meaningful input from troop and police contributors, warned against overloaded “Christmas tree” mandates, sought resources to match tasks, and advocated sunset clauses for outdated mandates.