India at the UN high table

The PM makes a strong case for reform and realignment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual address to the 75th session of the United General Assembly may not have received the attention it warranted but it contained a critical message when the credibility of this unique body is being called into question. Mr Modi’s key point was the urgent need to accelerate reform at the UN’s decision-making structures to reflect the changing world order. “How long will India, the world’s largest democracy and home to 1.3 billion people, be kept out of the decision-making structures of the United Nations,” he asked in his pre-recorded statement delivered in Hindi. This is a legitimate question, given the realignment of economic power since World War II. The five permanent members of the Security Council, the UN’s key policy-making body — the US, China, Britain, France, and Russia — reflect power equations immediately after World War II. Today, neither Britain, nor France, nor Russia figures among the world’s five largest economies. Those positions have been taken by Japan, Germany, and India. Given Asia’s rising power, there is no reason that India and Japan cannot find permanent seats on the Security Council (as should Germany, Europe’s largest and most influential economy). India has a proud history at the UN. It was a founding member in 1945, two years before it became an independent country. The country’s significance can be gauged from the fact that in June it won an overwhelming vote — 184 out of 192 ballots cast — for one of the 10 non-permanent Security Council seats, marking the eighth time India has held this position. Its two-year term begins January 2021.

To underline the point, Mr Modi highlighted India’s role as a responsible player on the global stage. He pointed to the long tradition of India’s contribution to UN peacekeeping forces. Almost 200,000 Indian troops have served in 49 of the 71 UN peacekeeping forces expeditions, fulfilling its core mandate of being the “world’s policeman”. In an oblique reference to China’s coercive brand of geostrategic relations, Mr Modi was at pains to point out that India’s approach was to form mutually acceptable partnerships. He also shrewdly positioned India as a reliable partner in the global fight against Covid-19, offering assurances that the country would put its capabilities as the world’s largest vaccine producer to the service of the world community.

These are all vital statements for the leader of the world’s largest democracy to make at a time when the leader of the sole superpower is abdicating its global responsibilities. US President Donald Trump’s move to stop funding the World Health Organization for its admittedly tardy response to the Covid-19 pandemic as a means of punishing China has done much to endanger the legitimacy of the UN. His criticisms may be legitimate but they should not negate the sole global institution for collective action, however imperfect. The UN’s struggle for relevance in a multi-polar world, where the post-war consensus is visibly fragmenting, is precisely because its decision-making structures are out of alignment with the new world order. This is the point, also made by Indian leaders before him, Mr Modi sought to underline in his forthright call for India’s place at the global high table.