UNITED NATIONS: India, which has been at the forefront of years’ efforts to reform the UN Security Council, will begin his two-year term as a non-permanent member of the powerful body of the world body on Friday.
India will sit in the 15 nations United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the period 2021-22 as a non-permanent member, the eighth time the country has a seat at the mighty horseshoe table.
On Friday, India, Norway, Kenya, Ireland and Mexico will join the non-permanent members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam and the five permanent members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
India will be president of the UN Security Council in August 2021 and will again chair the council for a month in 2022.
The presidency of the council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the alphabetical order in English of the names of the member states.
“As the largest democracy … we will promote very fundamental values such as democracy, human rights and development,” said Permanent Representative of India to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti he told PTI.
India’s message will also be to ensure “how do we allow diversity to flourish in a united framework, which is in many ways the United Nations itself. This is something that India as a country, as it represents, will bring to the council.
Tirumurti said that India will “definitely” emphasize a greater need for cooperation in the council, which should not be a place where, due to a paralysis in decision making, urgent requirements are not adequately addressed.
“We would like to have a more cooperative structure in which we really seek and find solutions and go beyond rhetoric,” said the envoy.
India will also underline the importance of respect for the rule of law and international law.
“Current multilateralism is not taking multipolarity into account. When you have a structure that can accommodate multipolarity in a multilateral framework, automatically (there is) a more responsive, more rule-governed and more inclusive process,” he said. , adding that this will lead to a reform in the multilateral system.
“In general, these are some of the messages that we will carry in varying degrees … We will be a country that will strengthen multilateralism. That would be India’s greatest strength in many ways when it enters the Security Council,” he said.
Tirumurti has highlighted the fight against terrorism, peacekeeping, maritime security, reformed multilateralism, technology for people, women and youth and development issues, especially in the context of peacebuilding. as India’s priorities for the UNSC mandate.
“I feel that India’s presence in the Security Council is necessary at this juncture where there are deep fissures among the P-5s themselves and also among other countries. The UN is losing coherence and we hope to regain this by focusing on priority issues for all. Member States, “Tirumurti said.
India has been at the forefront of long-standing efforts to reform the Security Council, saying that it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the council, which in its current form does not represent the geopolitical realities of the 21st century.
On the long overdue reforms of the UNSC, Tirumurti criticized the lack of progress, saying that almost nothing has happened in the last decade.
“Not a single thing has moved. Is this the kind of process we want or can we collectively come up with a slightly better process that will deliver results,” he said.
He underlined that it was time for a “genuine process” in which Member States worked on a single text for the negotiations.
Tirumurti also said that in recent months he has tried to define India’s interests “a little more sharply,” including the issue of terrorism.
“We have said to pursue terrorism with resolute determination and do not begin to give excuses and justifications,” said the Indian envoy.
India will also look at very specific issues that are on the council’s agenda, related to countries, specific issues, he said.
“What will happen is that the trend of the last few months of trying to define our interests a little more sharply will continue as we enter the UNSC,” he said.
Tirumurti has emphasized that in the Security Council, India will be a strong voice for the developing world.
He cited the example of issues related to Africa, including peacekeeping mandates, and said that India has always maintained that Africa should have a voice in decisions that concern it and that other countries do not decide for themselves.
Similarly, “if Afghanistan wants a peace process, let Afghanistan have a voice in it. We will be a country that will defend developing countries,” he said.
Tackle the virtual high level general Assembly September session, Prime Minister Narendra modi He had said that, as a member of the Security Council, India would not hesitate to raise its voice against the enemies of humanity, including terrorism, and will always speak out in support of peace, security and prosperity.
Modi had also affirmed that reform in the responses, the processes and in the very character of the United Nations was the “necessity of the moment”, since he questioned that for how long India, the world greater democracy and home to 1.3 billion people, it will remain outside the decision-making structures of the UN.
India, the candidate backed by the Asia-Pacific states, won 184 votes out of 192 votes cast in the June elections for the five non-permanent seats on the Security Council.
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