New York:
Bhutanese Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji has backed India’s bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council and has said Bhutan continues to believe that India and Japan should be included in a reformed Council as permanent members and as members of the African Union.
Addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he said: “We believe that the UN Security Council must evolve to remain relevant and effective to address the multi-faceted challenges of our time and in this regard, Bhutan supports the expansion of both the permanent and non-permanent categories of the Security Council.”
Extending support to India in his UN General Assembly address today, he added: “We continue to believe that India and Japan should be included in a reformed Council as permanent members so that they are also members of the African Union can become….”
The Bhutanese Foreign Minister underlined that effective multilateralism must address the challenges faced by less developed states.
“Effective multilateralism must address the concerns of the world’s less powerful countries. The architecture of global governance has not delivered the equality and inclusiveness needed to ensure that the ideals of the common agenda are implemented. “The increasing fragmentation, polarization and growing inequality that we are witnessing in the world today only serves as an urgent call to strengthen multilateralism to forge greater political resolve and solidarity and practice compassion,” he said.
Moreover, he also stated that Bhutan has consistently maintained that the reform of the UN Security Council must go hand in hand with the reform of the entire UN system.
“The reform must address the interests and concerns of all Member States, especially those who are unrepresented or underrepresented,” the Bhutanese Foreign Minister added.
In his address to the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier today, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called on the United Nations to undertake reforms to remain relevant in the modern world and said the issue can remain “indeterminate” and “undisputed”.
Taking a jab at some countries, Mr. Jaishankar said, “In our deliberations, we often advocate the promotion of a rules-based order. From time to time, respect for the UN Charter is also involved. There are still a few nations that are shaping the agenda and trying to define the norms. This cannot continue indefinitely and will not go unchallenged. A fair, just and democratic order will surely emerge once we all put our minds to it. For starters, that means ensuring that regulators do not subjugate rule-makers.”
Mr. Jaishankar welcomed the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member in the G20 grouping under the Indian G20 presidency and emphasized that the adoption of reforms would make the Security Council relevant to the modern world.
“It was also notable that the African Union was a permanent member of the G20 at the initiative of India. By doing this, we gave a voice to an entire continent that had long been its due. This important step in reform should inspire the United Nations, a much older organization, to also make the Security Council contemporary. After all, broad representation is a prerequisite for both effectiveness and credibility,” said Mr. Jaishankar.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)