New York, Sep 25 Frustrations are mounting among the international community over the lack of UN reforms, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said, asserting that those opposing them are “using” the world organisation and “don’t care” about it.
Jaishankar said that while the issue of reforming the UN has been a regular theme every year as nations gather in New York for the annual General Assembly sessions, but “I feel it’s getting stronger.”
“The frustrations are mounting because at the end of the day, if we are serious about reform, we need some text-based negotiation because you can’t have a negotiation without a text. Then it’s not a negotiation. Then it’s just gaining time.”
He underlined that the “sentiment for reform, I do think, is deepened.”
Jaishankar addressed a Ministerial session titled ‘Ruptures & Ramparts: Building Bridges for a Changing World’ organised on the margins of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly by the Observer Research Foundation, Reliance Foundation, UN in India and the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Thursday.
He said there is a feeling among the international community that the UN needs to be different, much more in conformity with the real world.
“That is actually the nub of the view that the UN should change. The UN is seen as behind the curve. That’s not being anti-UN. It’s actually those who care for the UN would like to reform the UN. I would suggest to you that those who oppose the reform are people who don’t really care for the UN.”
“They are using the UN, but they don’t care for the UN…that’s today a feeling which is very much stronger.”
Participating in the session, moderated by ORF President Samir Saran, were Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith, Suriname Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and Cooperation Melvin Bouva, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and President and Chief Executive of the East-West Center Celeste Connors.
Jaishankar further emphasised that “you’re not going to get reform by unanimity.”
He said “in a democracy, even at home, we make our choices through majority, through a vote. That’s a democratic way. So there will be people with views. Everybody should have a right to put their views forward, and then people need to take a vote.”
He stressed that it is a “no-brainer” that if there is a desire for reform, there has to be a text to be negotiated upon.
“You need to get everybody’s ideas on that text, and then you need to find a democratic resolution of those ideas,” he said.
Jaishankar pointed out that amongst the Global South nations, there is today a much greater inclination to share.
“Countries are willing to talk to each other more, willing to do more things with each other, and that itself is a good thing because what it does is it breaks the old dependencies…It becomes a more democratic world.”
Jaishankar said even in the selection of the next UN Secretary General, “this idea that we have a woman SG, it’s a bottom-up idea, not a top-down idea.”
In his final address to the high-level UNGA debate, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had delivered a powerful clarion call to global leaders to reform the Security Council to ensure that it reflects today’s world and has the legitimacy to deal with current geopolitical challenges.
India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, including expansion in both its permanent and non-permanent categories, saying the 15-nation Council, founded in 1945, is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century and does not reflect contemporary geo-political realities.
Delhi has consistently underscored that it rightly deserves a permanent seat at the horse-shoe table. India is vying for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for the 2028–29 term, elections for which will be held in June next year.
(PTI News)
