Couched in language that took 23 years to reach agreement on, the United Nations General Assembly on Monday adopted by consensus a negotiating text that sets the stage for adding India as a permanent member of the Security Council, joining the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China and France.

The so-called draft decision includes a negotiating text containing the positions of U.N. member states regarding Security Council reforms and how it should be expanded with both permanent and non-permanent members. The U.N.’s 69th session officially closed Tuesday, and the 70th session officially began the same day.

The negotiating text includes various member countries’ positions on these issues, although some nations, including the United States, Russia and China, did not submit their positions for inclusion. Indian U.N. Ambassador Asoke Mukerji was quoted by the country’s PTI news agency, quoting General Assembly President Sam Kutesa:

We now know that with the adoption of this truly historic decision, we can meet in the 70th Session of the [General Assembly] under the leadership of our Chair, the Permanent Representative of Jamaica, Ambassador Courtenay Rattray and build upon the significant work undertaken by him in the 69th Session.

It is our hope that with the adoption of this Decision, we will now move purposefully towards concluding our negotiations during the 70th Session, so that we fulfil the unanimous mandate given by our leaders in the World Summit of 2005 for ‘early reform’ of the Security Council to make it … ‘more broadly representative, efficient and transparent and thus to further enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions.’

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