New York:
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said there has been a “shift” in the issue of UN reforms within the international community.
“With regard to UN reform, you come back to that issue every General Assembly (session) but this time something has changed. You can see it, you can feel it,” Jaishankar told reporters in New York on Saturday. he rounded up the DailyExpertNews. York part of his visit to the US with his address to the UNGA high-level session.
Mr Jaishankar said it is not only he who is feeling a shift in the issue of UN reforms. “I think everyone felt a shift and it’s something that others have actually mentioned with me”.
He noted that this was voiced by US President Joe Biden, who said in his speech to the General Debate earlier this week that the United States is in favor of increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent representatives of the Council, with including permanent seats for those nations Washington has long supported and permanent seats for countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mr Jaishankar added that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “explicitly” referred to India from the General Assembly podium, and a number of countries also referred to India in their statements. The chairman of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Korosi, also spoke quite forcefully and explicitly on the issue of UN reforms.
In his address to the General Assembly just an hour before Mr. Jaishankar’s speech, Lavrov said the UN and Security Council should be aligned with today’s realities.
He said Moscow sees the prospect of making the Security Council more democratic, solely by broadening the representation of countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America. “We see India and Brazil in particular as important international actors and worthy candidates for permanent membership of the Council, while at the same time unilaterally and compulsorily raising Africa’s profile,” Lavrov said.
Mr Jaishankar added that it is not customary in a General Assembly for presidents, prime ministers or foreign ministers of one country to refer to another country. “But you have seen in our eyes and in my view on a number of occasions that it was relevant to UN reform, affirming that India mattered more and underlining the global relevance of the South that India has.
“We have some tailwinds. Now we have to see what we can make of it. I think it’s a welcome development. As someone who has been coming here for many years, I really believe it’s more than a subtle shift and I applaud it up,” he said.
He was asked about UN Security Council reform, the US position on it, India’s position on the veto, and whether it is separate from permanent membership.
Mr Jaishankar said the starting point is the need to accept that reforms need to come and then the need to develop some sort of practical road towards it. He added that it is not the case that people have fixed positions and definite concepts.
“Everyone has ideas, the ideas will go into a melting pot and then you have to see what comes out,” he said, adding that it is very premature at this stage to comment on India’s own views or those of other people.
“But the most important thing is that… a negotiation between countries has a practical, tangible basis or there is a text. It is unbelievable that after so many years there is really no text. So how does the negotiation go when there is no text and no progress and no inventory and no ‘year-end where are we’ kind of evaluation,” he said.
“If there’s no text, it just goes round and round,” he said. He noted that a lot of the discussions with other people have been that if the intergovernmental negotiation process is to get serious, “we need to move it to text-based negotiations and there’s a growing appreciation for the need for that.”
Addressing the General Assembly, Mr Jaishankar underlined India’s belief that multipolarity, rebalancing, fair globalization and reformed multilateralism cannot be suspended. He said the call for reformed multilateralism — with Security Council reforms at its core — enjoys significant support among UN members.
“It does this because of the widespread recognition that current architecture is anachronistic and ineffective. It is also perceived as highly unfair, denying entire continents and regions a voice in a forum deliberating about their future,” he said.
He stressed that it is New Delhi’s call for serious negotiations on such a critical issue to be conducted sincerely. “They should not be blocked by procedural tactics. Opponents cannot hold the IGN process hostage forever.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)