The G4 nations comprising Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan are four countries which support each other’s bids for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. Unlike the G7, where the common denominator is the economy and long-term political motives, the G4’s primary aim is the permanent member seats on the Security Council.
More About G-4
- Each of these four countries have figured among the elected non-permanent members of the council since the UN’s establishment.
- Their economic and political influence has grown significantly in the last decades, reaching a scope comparable to the permanent members (P5).
- However, the G4’s bids are often opposed by the Uniting for Consensus movement, and particularly their economic competitors or political rivals.
- The United Kingdom and France have backed the G4’s bid for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. Japan has received support from the United States and the United Kingdom.
- All the permanent members of P5 have supported India’s bids for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) but China had previously implied that it is only ready to support India’s bid for a permanent seat on United Nations Security Council if India did not associate its bid with Japan.
- The G4 had proposed expanding UNSC membership from 15 to 25 by adding six permanent members and four non-permanent members, with the objective of the G4 obtaining permanent membership. The G-4 agreed to forego their right to the veto for at least 15 years.
Uniting for Consensus
- Uniting for Consensus (UFC) is a movement, nicknamed the Coffee Club, that developed in the 1990s in opposition to the possible expansion of permanent seats in the UNSC.
- Under the leadership of Italy, it aims to counter the bids for permanent seats proposed by G4 nations and is calling for a consensus before any decision is reached on the form and size of the Security Council.
- Italy, through the ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci, along with Pakistan, Mexico and Egypt, in 1995 founded the “Coffee Club”.
- The founders of the group were soon joined by other countries, including Spain, Argentina, Turkey, Canada, and South Korea, and in a short time the group came to include about 50 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
