Gist of UNSC Presidency: India’s Agenda | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

RSTV: The Big Picture – UNSC Presidency: India's Agenda

Introduction:

India has assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of August and is set to organise key events in three major areas of maritime security, peacekeeping and counter-terrorism.

Presidency:

• The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the Member States names.
• It rotates among the 15 member-states of the council monthly.
• The head of the country’s delegation is known as the President of the United Nations Security Council.
• The president serves to coordinate actions of the council, decide policy disputes, and sometimes functions as a diplomat or intermediary between conflicting groups.
• Each non-permanent member gets the opportunity to operate as president of the UN Security Council during the two years it is part of the grouping. The presidency of UNSC changes hands every month between its members in the English alphabetical order of the member states’ names.
• In August, the presidency was passed on from France to India. Similarly, Ireland is slated to take over the presidency from India in September.
• India will be in line for the presidency again in December 2022. The country’s last term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC was in 2011-12, which was preceded by stints in 1991-92, 1984-85, 1977-78, 1972-73, 1967-68, and 1950-51.

Powers of the UNSC President

• According to the UNSC’s official website, the presidency derives responsibility from the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the United Nations Security Council as well as UNSC’s practice. The holder of the presidency is considered to be the ‘face’ and spokesperson of the UNSC.
• The UNSC president is also authorised to issue both presidential statements (subject to consensus among Council members) and notes, which are used to make declarations of intent that the full Security Council can then pursue.

Responsibilities of the UNSC president:

• Calling meetings of the UN Security Council
• Appealing to parties in a conflict to “exercise restraint”
• Reading statements of the UN Security Council to the press
• Approving provisional agenda (proposed by the secretary-general)
• Presiding at UNSC meetings and deciding questions relating to policy and overseeing any crisis

India qualifies for UNSC Permanent membership:

• India in many ways is a sui generis country. It’s a country of a billion-plus, it’s a country which is a democracy, perhaps the only example in history of a billion-plus people working together in a democratic framework.
• We will bring to it those values and strengths of being able to work cohesively among disparate entities.
• One of the biggest issues that will confront all multilateral organisations and certainly the security council will be issues which are beyond borders.
• Issues of the global commons, whether it is in cases of public health as we are now seeing in the current pandemic, but other issues, for example, cyber [issues]. There are no regulatory mechanisms or no rules on that, and that’s another.
• A third one is issues of high seas. Again, beyond your EEZ [exclusive economic zone], there is very limited understanding of what states can do and what states can’t do.
• Ungoverned spaces lead to opportunities for those who are inimical to global governance to breed, whether it is in states or it is beyond state boundaries, this has been the experience, and therefore, we as a country would like to focus on these things.
• Another area of interest would obviously be technology with a human touch. Increasingly, resilience of human beings is an important factor that all of us have been confronted with where there are disasters, can we have a more humane approach to these, etc.

Reasons:

• India was among the founding members of United Nations.
• India has been a leader and largest constant contributor of troops to United Nations Peacekeeping missions.
• India always has been upholding UN principles.
• It is a major big economic emergent power.
• India’s picture in the UN as well as in the world has increased whether it is the election of ICJ.
• 177 countries including Islamic countries celebrated International Yoga Day.
• India enjoys the backing of major powers including four permanent members other than China and those of African Union, Latin America, Middle Eastern countries and other LDCs from different parts of the globe.
• India has been a responsible power and it has contributed significantly in global peace efforts.
• India rescued not only Indians but also many persons from other countries including Pakistan and USA from war ravaged Yemen and South Sudan under its operation Rahat and Sankat Mochan respectively.

 Current Scenario:

• China opposes Japan’s entry.
• Italy and Spain opposes Germany’s entry.
• Argentina and Mexico opposes Brazil’s bid.
• African countries have not come up with their candidates.
• India has emerged as the strongest candidate.
• UNSC is balance of power reflectivity of 1945 and not today.
• Out of the 122 members who have given their comments on negotiations, 113 support the reforms.
• All the permanent members have their angularities when it comes to expanding the UNSC with Franch supporting openly.
• India follows an independent foreign policy which is very often not seen as those in power sitting in sync with them.

Way forward and Conclusion:

• India should continue to make its efforts and we should grow at 10+ growth rate to achieve our target which will inturn help our bid.
• The credibility of UNSC has suffered a severe blow as it has been ineffective and inefficient in tackling the conflicts in different parts of the world such as Syria, Ukraine etc. In most of these situations UNSC has remained mere a mute spectator.
• Therefore the demand for reforms in the council has become a necessity to restore its credibility and effectiveness in maintaining international peace and security.
• In this context, the challenges before India are many. The Security Council is one of the most important multilateral decision-making bodies where the contours of global geopolitics are often drawn.
• India should avoid the temptation of taking sides at a time when the Security Council is getting more and more polarised.
• To serve its interests and push for its agenda of multilateralism and reforms, India should adopt value-based positions that are not transactional, aspire for the leadership of the non-permanent members of the Council and be the voice of the weaker nations.
• India has been actively pursuing its quest to be included in the reformed United Nations Security Council for many years.
• The argument of including new members is that UNSC has to acknowledge the current geopolitical realities which are very different from the time when UNSC was formed.
• The current permanent members of the Security Council are the five nations that were made permanent members in the charter when the United Nations was founded.
• The UNSC tenure is a good moment for India to intensify India’s engagement on peace and security issues in Africa at bilateral, regional and global levels.