AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio Newsonair. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation. This article features a discussion on India’s role in the UN and India’s quest for UN reforms.
Participants:
- Anil Wadhwa, Former Ambassador
- Nilova Roy Chaudhary, Journalist
Introduction:
- President of the United Nations General Assembly Abdulla Shahid during his recent visit to India stressed the role played by India at the UN.
- He held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar which covered a range of key issues, including cooperation at the UN.
- He acknowledged the crucial role India played during the Covid recovery phase as the “pharmacy of the world” that assisted various countries in the remotest parts of the world.
Significance of Abdulla Shahid’s visit:
- Mr. Shahid’s presidency coincided with India’s eighth tenure as an elected member of the United Nations Security Council.
- He has emerged as an important player in international diplomacy as his tenure has seen the role of the UNGA enhanced.
- Abdulla Shahid is also the Maldivian foreign minister. His visit gains significance as India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links.
- As the pre-eminent South Asian power and a ‘net security provider’ in the Indian Ocean region, India needs to cooperate with the Maldives in the security and defence sectors.
- India’s “Neighbourhood First” and the Maldives’ “India First” policies complement each other.
- India also contributed a lot during his UNGA presidency which was reflected in his statement about India being the “source of pride not only for south Asia but for all peace-loving democracies”.
Challenges for UN as a multilateral organisation:
- Change in geopolitical situations with the emergence of a new cold war-like situation between China and the U.S.
- Western alliance is divided on various global issues despite enduring post-war alliances.
- Inequitable economic and geographical representation in UNSC. It has to be more representative and democratic.
- Various stalled reform agendas and issues including its interventions in Libya and Syria in the name of responsibility have put questions on the credibility of the institution.
- The UN is facing a cash crisis, with member states accumulating more than $1 billion in unpaid dues.
- The UN also needs to restructure its peacekeeping force as they have underperformed in critical situations and is mired in a string of scandals.
India’s role in the UN and its quest for reforms:
- India has always been a very strong advocate for multilateralism in the global context and has tried to play a fairly significant and constructive role having the best of relations with all countries.
- India during its ongoing tenure in UNSC has bought renewed the focus of the Council on its priorities, especially maritime security, UN peacekeeping, protection of peacekeepers, and combatting terrorism in all its forms.
- UNSC has the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. But, in the past few years, the veto powers possessed by the permanent five members have been used for their own geopolitical interests regardless of the disastrous consequences for the victims in armed conflict or in other similar situations.
- Going beyond UN reforms, India is also concerned with reforms in other multilateral institutions such as World Health Organisation (WHO), and World Trade Organisation as the global issues are interconnected.
- For example, the WHO during the Covid pandemic could not act in time due to stiff resistance from China, which is a permanent UNSC member.
Conclusion:
The United Nations is facing different kinds of challenges of current humanitarian and economic losses with the changed geopolitical order. The UN needs to be more responsive with timely and relevant reforms to strengthen its effectiveness and credibility as a multilateral organisation. India can conserve its diplomatic capital at the UN and expend it on building domestic capacity and influencing the way in which the UN functions and this perhaps will allow India to exercise the kind of influence it desires at the UN, with or without reforms.
Read more on UNSC Reforms.
Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.
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