Diplomatic activity on the expansion of the Security Council has intensified at the United Nations.
The 'Coffee Club', led by Pakistan and Italy, has decided to launch a vigorous campaign to counter efforts of the Group of Four, comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, which is seeking permanent membership for its members in an expanded council.
The 'Coffee Club', which has less than 40 of the 191 member-states, held a meeting of all UN members on Monday to promote its viewpoint, which is that the expansion should be only in the non-permanent category.
It also wants an informal group to be set up to consider alternative proposals for the expansion.
The first meeting of the informal group will be convened by Italy and its membership will be open to all countries interested in evolving a 'solution' to the problems facing the council's expansion.
The organisers said representatives of 119 member-states attended the meeting, as against representatives of more than 150 states for the G-4 meeting.
But diplomats explained that attendance at such meetings does not translate into support for either viewpoint.
Britain and France were among the notable absentees at the 'Club' meeting, but Pakistani diplomats, who were in the forefront of briefing newspersons, downplayed the absence.
They expected more members in meetings in the future, they said, thus indicating several such meetings were in the offing.
Representatives of the United States and China expressed their known views, which favour consensus, diplomats said.
The meeting was closed to the press.
Pakistan diplomats privately said their main aim was to ensure that around 60 member-states abstained from voting, or voted against, any resolution calling for expansion of the council in the permanent category or seeking membership for the G-4 members.
They do not need a huge majority, they said, apparently indicating their strategy.
The meeting was presided over by Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recalled a former diplomat and one time ambassador at the United Nations Iman Ul Haque to lead the country's delegation.
Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, San Marino and Albania sent their ministers. Argentina, Colombia and Mexico oppose Brazil, and Spain and Italy do not want Germany to be a permanent member. South Korea and China oppose Japan. Even though Pakistan has not openly opposed India's bid, it favours expansion only in the non-permanent category.
In their similar presentations to the press after the meeting, Fini and Haque emphasised that expansion of the council is not the major issue.
Much more important are reduction in poverty, debt elimination of poor countries and issues of security, among others.
They suggested step-by-step reforms, first taking up issues on which consensus is easy to find and then moving on building consensus on more difficult issues.
Referring to the G-4's campaign, Haque said great and big countries do not need to be permanent members of the Council. They will have influence in any case and can exert it whenever they wanted.
The main principal on which the United Nations is based is national sovereignty and the idea that each nation can contribute to resolve the issues facing the world, Haque added.
Thus expansion in the non-permanent category will give opportunity to more and more countries to contribute, he said.
Replying to questions, he said the UN Charter had created five permanent members but that provision cannot be corrected. However, it will be wrong to create more 'centers of power'.
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