Chinese media criticises India’s alliance with Japan for UNSC permanent membership

China has termed India’s alliance with Japan to push for a permanent membership in the UN Security Council (UNSC) a mistake. China’s state run media, Global Times, has criticised India saying it is the ‘biggest mistake’ on its part. Ahead of the 70^th anniversary celebrations of UN General Assembly, the members had, by consensus, approved to have text-based negotiations to reform the UNSC. This demand was particularly made by the G-4 countries comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil who are all aspirants for a permanent membership in a reformed UNSC.

“Beijing as a UNSC permanent member has not openly supported New Delhi’s UN aspiration. India, taking this as an excuse, pressures China through every possible means,” the article said. “China has maintained for long it is a mistake on India’s part to join Japan, whose candidature Beijing opposes for historical reasons. China has not gone beyond saying that it understands India’s aspiration to play a bigger role in the UN,” wrote Liu Zongyi, a researcher at the state-run Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, in the article in Global Times.

China is the only country among the five permanent members in the UNSC that has not openly endorsed India’s permanent membership in an expanded Security Council, while the other four members have supported India’s membership. The article stressed that the support for India’s permanent membership is to counter China and that India would not receive their support on other issues such as a veto in an expanded Security Council. “Uncertain of winning a permanent seat this year, Japan has already prepared to become a non-permanent Security Council member from 2016 to 2017. Earlier, Japan offered massive aid to Bangladesh in exchange for its support and has already won support from African and Latin American countries,” added the article.

India does not have any such plan as Japan to win a non-permanent seat and lagged behind Japan in this case, according to Mr Zongyi. China’s approach would be noted by India and Japan in UNGA’s 70^th session during the discussion of the reforms. Recent news reports in India of China and Russia scuttling India’s chances for a permanent membership in an expanded UNSC have been doing the rounds.

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