Round The World

New Delhi, 2 October 2020

Reforming The UN

INDIA’S UNSC MEMBERSHIP?

By Dr. D.K. Giri

(Prof, International Politics, JMI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impassioned speech on 22 September on the occasion of 75^th Anniversary of the United Nations. The crux of his delivery was its reform and expansion and India’s membership of the UNSC. He implored, “When we were strong, we were never a threat to the world, when we were weak, we never become a burden on the world. How long would a country have to wait particularly when the transformational changes happening in that country affect a large part of the world? Today every Indian, while seeing the contribution of India in UN, aspires for India’s expanded role in the United Nations.”

It goes without saying that the geopolitics in the world has changed, the post-war power configurations have changed and it’s a different world. The peace-keepers on the UN Security Council have become a threat to world security and the ‘villains’ of War have become champions of peace and democracy. I am referring to China, which is anti-democratic and anti-peace. How can it be UNSC member with a veto power? Japan and Germany are democracies, how can they be kept out of the UN power structure.

The veto power itself should be done away with. The decisions should be taken on majority vote. One country standing against the values of UN could not be vested with a veto to torpedo the collective will of the world. India, as the largest democracy in the world can no longer be kept out of UN decision-making process.

Modi rightly asserted, “The people of India have been waiting for a long time for the process for reforms of the United Nations to get completed. Today, people of India are concerned whether this reform-process will ever reach its logical conclusion. For how long will India be kept out of the decision-making structures of the United Nations?” But India’s foreign policy has faltered too. Let us see how.

It may be recalled that, in 1955, India was offered the membership of the UNSC by the US and others to come in from the Asian region. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru declined it and suggested it should be reserved for China which was then under dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek. India was preferred to China as the former was a democracy. Ever since, we lost the opportunity. India has been courting Russia, an original permanent member of the Council for its veto on Kashmir whenever UNSC threatened to pass any resolution indicting India. India’s foreign policy has been largely influenced by Soviet veto in its favour on Kashmir. However, that is history.

In the current scenario, the UN, the highest body of the world clearly lacks legitimacy as UNSC remains under-represented. Jeffery Sachs of Columbia University, a leading expert and commentator of world politics, says “Asia’s inadequate representation poses a serious threat to the UN’s legitimacy, which will only increase as the world’s most populous region assumes an increasingly important global role.” He suggests that one possible way to resolve the problem should be to add at least four Asian seats: one permanent seat for India, one shared by Japan and Korea, perhaps on a basis of two-year or one-year rotation, one for the ASEAN countries, representing the group as a single constituency and fourth rotating among other Asian countries.

Over a decade ago, on 21 March 2005, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN at the time, called on the members to reach a consensus on expanding the Security Council to 24 members. He had devised a plan for expansion called “In Larger Freedom”. The current SG, Antonio Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal, should make it happen. If he wants to reform peace and security architecture, he will also need to address reforms related to peace keeping that have been urged for long. The reform of the UN requires the support of two- thirds of its 193 members. From the records of the formal speeches made at the UN sessions, 160 members have expressed their concurrence for it.

For long, India has been advocating for reforming the UN. On the fringe of the UN General Assembly, the G-4 countries – India, Brazil, Germany and Japan - met to push for the change in UNSC by expanding the number of both permanent and non-permanent members. There was support for restructuring of UN in general and for permanent membership of India in particular. There was a consensus in 2005 Summit that the early reform of the Security Council was an essential element for peace and security in the turbulent world as is the reform of the UN.

Let us look at arguments in favour of India’s permanent membership of the Security Council. To start with, India has been a founding member of the UN, although its permanent membership has been elusive, since Nehru denied the offer for some inexplicit reasons. However, the arguments in support are many. To cite a few, India is the second most populous country with 1.3 billion, and is likely to overtake China to become number one. So it’s incongruous that the biggest country in terms of population, one-sixth of the world humanity remains unrepresented in the highest body of the world.

Second, it is the largest democracy in the world. One of the missions of the UN is to foster democracy in the world, and India has remained a beacon light for countries in the whole of Asia as an unflinching democracy. Third, India has been a non-permanent member of the UNSC for six terms spanning 12 years, and has been overwhelmingly re-elected once more to start a new tem from January 2021. It’s time that it becomes a permanent member.

Fourth, India is the 7^th largest economy in the world, growing steadily with minor hiccups. It is expected to contribute to world trade and economy, as in 20 years’ time or so, it is expected to overtake the Chinese economy. Fifth, India is already a member of the groups of rich countries like G-4 and G-77, which produce goods and services for the entire world. Sixth, India has the 3^rd largest army in the world and has contributed so far 160,000 soldiers to 50 UN peace keeping missions to difficult conflict areas. Indian soldiers have laid down their lives for the freedom and security of countries under domination or in war.

No doubt, UNSC membership will not be easy to come by. New Delhi has to initiate a different method of expanding the UN with the help of its friends. Narendra Modi has been rubbing shoulders with the rest of the four permanent members and other important countries like Japan and Germany. Can he pull a rabbit out of his hat and secure the membership of UNSC for India before he goes to the polls in coming 18 months? Looks unlikely, as with many of his initiatives, he has impressive beginnings with his persuasive slogans and one-liner policy formulations etc., but the ends are yet to be seen.

In fact, it is typical of India’s foreign policy establishments from Nehru era onward to drag issues until they fizzle out naturally. I have been partly commending Modi for ‘breaking the mould in India’s foreign policy without rocking the boat’. But the real and the toughest test would be the UNSC membership. Will he succeed? We would like to think so in the national interest of India.---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)