Finance
Indias External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will preside over a high-level ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday to push for reforming the body to take on the “multidimensional crises” staring at the world.
He met with General Assembly President Csaba Korosi and Japan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Yamada Kenji on Tuesday to prepare for the meeting.
Following their meeting, both Korosi and Jaishankar tweeted that UN reforms were discussed.
Japan is a member of the G4, a group of countries that includes India, Brazil, and Japan that advocate for Council reforms and mutual support for permanent seats on an expanded Council.
In the last month of the year, India is exercising its prerogative as the Council’s president of its two-year elected membership, to take the long-delayed and contentious issue right to its chamber.
According to a note from India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, “the multidimensional crises confronting the world today necessitate a representative multilateral architecture that is reflective of contemporary global realities and well equipped to meet the emerging challenges.”
The meeting will be briefed on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism” by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Csaba, with ministers or senior diplomats from Council members participating.
Jaishankar will join Guterres and Csaba in unveiling a bust of Mahatma Gandhi at UN Headquarters prior to the Council meeting.
On Thursday, Jaishankar will preside over another signature event, this time focusing on counter-terrorism, another top priority for India.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will seek “consensus amongst Council Members on the broad principles of a global counter-terror architecture and aim to further build upon the Delhi Declaration” adopted in October in New Delhi at a special meeting of the Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee, which India chairs.
India, as the country that has contributed the most peacekeepers to the UN, is committed to their safety, and Jaishankar will convene a multinational group to demand action against those who attack peacekeepers.
Jaishankar will co-chair the Group of Friends for Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers with co-chairs Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco, and Nepal.
India is promoting the “International Year of Millets, 2023” to promote the use of the nutritious foodgrain.
Jaishankar will host a millet-based luncheon for Guterres to highlight it.
According to the Indian mission’s note, India will raise the question, “What steps are required to ensure that the Security Council reflects contemporary global realities, which would make it more effective in discharging its primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security?” at the Council meeting on reforms.
The note noted that the UN has grown from 55 members to 193 since its inception 75 years ago, but the organization has not kept pace with the changing world, as evidenced by the most recent change in Council composition was in 1965, although without a change in the permanent membership.
Even though world leaders have repeatedly called for reforms since their millennial summit in 2005, little progress has been made, and a negotiating text to move the reform discussions forward has not been adopted, according to the report.
The discussions will also address the need for reforms in other UN and international organizations.
Source:IANS
