§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the proposal of the Japanese Government to expand membership of the Security Council. [15828]
§ Peter HainThe UK is a strong advocate of Security Council reform, which is discussed at the Open-ended Working Group on Security Council Reform at the United Nations in New York. Since views differ widely on what the size and shape of the Security Council should be progress has been slow.
Like Japan and a number of other countries, we support enlargement of the Security Council in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership. We believe that a Council along these lines could provide an acceptable balance between retaining effectivness and making the Council more representative of the modern world.