India begins its two-year tenure as non-permanent member of UNSC
(Sourced from PTI)
India, which has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on Friday began its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member of the powerful organ of the world body. India will sit in the 15-nation UNSC for the 2021-22 term as a non-permanent member - the eighth time that the country has had a seat.
In 2021, India, Norway, Kenya, Ireland, and Mexico will join non-permanent members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam, and the five permanent members China, France, Russia, UK, and the US. India will be UNSC President in August 2021 and will preside over the Council again for a month in 2022.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador TS Tirumurti said, "As the world's largest democracy, India will promote fundamental values like human rights and development and reinforce multilateralism while underlining the need for greater cooperation in the UNSC."
India's message will be to ensure "how do we let diversity flourish in a united framework, which is in many ways the United Nations itself." Tirumurti said, "We would like to have a more cooperative structure in which we genuinely lookout and find solutions and go beyond the rhetoric." India will also underscore the importance of respect for rule of law and international law.
"We will be a country which will reinforce multilateralism. That would be the biggest strength of India in many ways when it gets into the Security Council," he said. Tirumurti has outlined counter-terrorism, peacekeeping, maritime security, reformed multilateralism, technology for the people, women and youth and developmental issues, especially in the context of peace building, as India's priorities for the UNSC tenure.
"India's presence in the Security Council is needed at this juncture when there are deep fissures between P-5 themselves and between other countries. UN is losing coherence and we hope to bring this back by focusing on priority issues to all Member States," he said.
On the long-delayed UNSC reforms, Tirumurti criticized the lack of progress and said that hardly anything has happened in the last decade. He underlined that it is time for a "genuine process" wherein Member States work with a single text for negotiations. "India will look at very specific issues which are on the agenda of the council, relating to countries, specific topics," he said.
Tirumurti emphasized that in the Security Council, India will be a strong voice for the developing world. India, the endorsed candidate from the Asia-Pacific States, won 184 votes out of 192 ballots cast in June for the five non-permanent seats of the Security Council.
