Japan and the United Nations
Ministerial-Level Meeting of G4 (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan)
September 25, 2014
On September 25, 2014 (local time), the G4 Ministerial-level Meeting (chair country: Brazil) was held in the Consulate-General of Brazil in New York for approximately one hour, on the margins of the 69th United Nations General Assembly. An overview of the discussions is as follows (participants from each country were Mr. Fumio Kishida, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister of India, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, and Mr. Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Minister of External Relations of Brazil). Following the meeting, a joint press statement of the G4 was released (see attachment for the full text of the joint statement).
- Concerning the current status of Intergovernmental Negotiations on the United Nations Security Council Reform, G4 countries welcomed certain progress made by the Intergovernmental Negotiations during the previous General Assembly thanks to the efforts by H.E. Mr. John Ashe, the President of the 68th General Assembly. The G4 countries also shared their recognition that the year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, and in order to achieve concrete progress in the Security Council reform, early start of “true negotiations” based on a text should be realized.
- The foreign ministers of G4 agreed on the following future policies and instructed the working-level officials to accelerate their operations.
(1)To aim the start of text-based negotiations for the purpose of gaining concrete outcome on the Security Council reform in the next year, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN.
(2)Since support from two-thirds of the member states (129 countries) are necessary for the promotion of the reform, the G4 nations will approach and encourage reform-oriented member states, including African countries (54 countries); and
(3)Based on the existing position of the G4, the G4 countries will call for expansion of support to other countries and discuss future measures based on the result of such an approach. - Moreover, the foreign ministers of G4 shared their views that it would be important to conduct outreach efforts to the civil society in order to develop an atmosphere conductive to reform of the Security Council. In this regard, each country appreciated the importance of pubic seminars for dialogues with civil society held in Brazil, India, and Japan through 2013-2014 with the participation of students, intellectuals, and media.