Chasing National Interests at the UN high table
India's mission of achieving its goals at the United Nations Security Council(UNSC) should have a clear plan and reveal its material and geopolitical confines. The much appreciated objective and core values of the country should be clearly viewed from all aspects.
What is UNSC?
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is a principal organs of the United Nations charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter. Its powers include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action.
What is the Aim of UNSC?
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is aims to achieve a regional balance, with five Asian or African members, two Latin American members, one east European, and two members from western Europe or other regions making up the mix of non-permanent members.
India and UNSC
- India’s two-year non-permanent stint at the UNSC should be viewed as a once-in-a-decade opportunity to clearly identify and pursue its national interests regionally and globally. India’s entry into the UNSC coincides with the emergence of a new world order.
- India’s entry into the UNSC coincides with the rise of the new world order. There is an absence of global leadership. The world is divided into rival blocs for narrow national interests.
- Currently, the relevance of the UNSC is in serious doubt, and it is not able to do justice to its primary objective i.e. “the maintenance of international peace and security”.
- Biden’s administration will be busy undoing the policies of the previous regime for some time. Thus, nothing much should be expected from US as of now.
- India’s term at the UNSC comes at a time when its military rivalry with China is increasing. This has come to the UNSC table after china opposed the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) to be chaired by India in 2022.
Should India deserves a permanent seat at UNSC?
- India deserves a permanent seat at the high table of the United Nations, the UN Security Council (UNSC), but is almost sure not to have it anytime soon.
- Therefore, its two-year non-permanent stint at the UNSC should be viewed as a once-in-a-decade opportunity to clearly identify and pursue its national interests regionally and globally, rather than chase chimerical goals such as a permanent membership or to issue please-all platitudes.
- The UNSC, unfortunately, is where the leading powers of the international system dictate terms, show less powerful countries their ‘rightful’ place, fight among themselves even as they negotiate deals outside the horseshoe-tabled room.
Challenges for India in UNSC by China
- India’s tenure at the UNSC comes in the wake of its growing military rivalry with Beijing, the impact of which has already started to be felt at the UNSC meetings in New York. China’s opposition to having India chair the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in 2022 was a precursor to the things to come on the high table.
- Greater Indian alignment with the West at the UNSC, an unavoidable outcome, could, however, widen the growing gulf between Moscow and New Delhi given Russia’s increasing dependence on Beijing in more ways than one.
- India’s seat at the UNSC is also significant vis-à-vis China because the next two years will be key to ensure checking further Chinese incursions along the Line of Actual Control and building up enough infrastructure and mobilizing sufficient forces in the forward areas.
- Our experience from Doklam to Ladakh to now Arunachal Pradesh points in one direction — that Chinese land grab attempts will continue unabated and in pushing Beijing back, we would need all the assistance we can get.
