The United Nations and India
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Revision as of 22:13, 5 October 2020
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
2020: India in UNSC for eighth time
New Delhi:
India is back in the UN Security Council for the eighth time when global politics is witnessing several inflection points — growing US disinterest in multilateralism, Chinese determination to dominate global multilateral institutions and especially when India-China ties are at a historic low in the backdrop of Ladakh clashes.
PM Narendra Modi tweeted his gratitude on India’s election to the UNSC-unopposed by 184 votes. “Deeply grateful for the overwhelming support shown by the global community for India’s membership of the @UN Security Council. India will work with all member-countries to promote global peace, security, resilience and equity.”
Vikas Swaroop, secretary (west), MEA, said, “We will act as a voice of reason and moderation and a firm believer in respect for law and peaceful settlement of disputes.” He said India would want to “reform” the multilateral system based on samman, samvad, sahyog, shanti and samriddhi (respect, dialogue, cooperation, peace and develpment).
The call for “reformed multilateralism” by both Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar will not involve the UNSC itsel. For the next couple of years though, India will be “in the room” to push back against Chinese mischief targeting New Delhi. “China cannot use this forum against India,” said a source. That will be a big gain. In addition, China’s actions in Ladakh have now completely eroded its position as a supposed “impartial” interlocutor on Kashmir. India can use that to neutralise China’s needling on Pakistan’s behalf.
However, it is a difficult ask for India to contemplate any big steps in the UNSC. For one thing, India’s positions on peace and security issues hewed closely to the Chinese and Russian line rather than the West. Like China, India doesn’t want an “activist” UNSC, and like China and Russia, India stresses the sovereignty principle in international crises. That is unlikely to change.
But the position will give India some useful leverage to push some key objectives, especially of playing a role in global governance which heading a UN body entails. China heads three, and lost the Unesco and WIPO elections. India can use the next couple of years to pick up deserving candidates (not only politically connected ones) to manouvre them to be electable. India does not head any UN body.
