NEW DELHI: There is
concern that Pakistan, as current president of the UN Security Council,
might try to bring bilateral issues like the LoC firings to the
international table. As India steps down from the UNSC after two years,
South Block can take satisfaction from the fact that in the past two
years, no bilateral issue by Pakistan saw the light of day.
Ascending to the UNSC after a gap of 18 years, India came to the job under a fair amount of international scrutiny. Since India likes to proclaim its natural candidature for being at the global high table, there was a lot of interest about what it would bring to the table, whether India would be able to graduate out of its South Asia cocoon to address global problems.
With a UNSC delegation smaller than Togo, India's resources were fully stretched. It took some criticism regarding its approach to Syria, but Indian officials say the first and only outcome document on Syria was a presidential statement (PRST) adopted during India's presidency of the UNSC in August 2011.
India supported the Kofi Annan initiative as well as the Lakhdar Brahimi one, while the IBSA countries unusually sent a delegation to meet Bashar Al Assad to seek a peaceful resolution. Equally unusually, Syria attracted three double-vetoes, which shows the deep polarization of the world body.
India also weathered similar criticism on Libya because of its abstention on resolution 1973, but every Indian assessment has concluded that it was on the right side of history regarding its objections to the Libya enterprise. As an official observed, "Regime changes by externally induced means cannot become the norm of the day."
One of India's primary diplomatic and
military challenges is piracy off Somalia in the Indian Ocean. It's an
issue that concerns India directly, given that 11% of the world's
seafarers are Indian. It's also a place where India has the opportunity
of taking a leadership position. In the UNSC, the first ever thematic
discussion on piracy and a PRST was piloted by India.
The Indian action, sources said, led to a UNSC decision to define the boundaries of High Risk Areas based on actual incidents. The decision, officials said, has been picked up by the insurance industry to adopt new global norms on these lines.
A lot of India's efforts went into "blocking" initiatives — to keep the counter-terrorism focus of UNSCR 1988 and 1989 on al-Qaida and Taliban, to make sure the international community did not come nosing into Maldives, to block the US from pushing through a resolution on nuclear proliferation keeping the primacy of the NPT. But that, as officials said, is a function of India's current international position, where it is a rising power, but still beset with a number of vulnerabilities which would be exacerbated as a result of international attention.
An official said this is similar to what China used to be in the 1990s, when it stayed largely silent. Now that China has greater weight, the Chinese function with much greater confidence. For instance, Beijing tabled several resolutions on Syria, even if they went nowhere.
The unwritten issue that keeps India from taking a larger role is obviously the lack of hands on deck. With miniscule delegations, India has to deal with countries like South Korea and Japan, not to speak of China, who come with ample bench strength.
The reality check for India was that despite everybody's best efforts, it will not make it as a permanent member of the UN Security Council anytime soon. The second reality check is that just being on the UNSC is not enough, if one is not a member of the P-5. While on the one hand, the UNSC is losing international relevance, it remains a club where the top decisions are only made by five powers. That's not about to change.
Ascending to the UNSC after a gap of 18 years, India came to the job under a fair amount of international scrutiny. Since India likes to proclaim its natural candidature for being at the global high table, there was a lot of interest about what it would bring to the table, whether India would be able to graduate out of its South Asia cocoon to address global problems.
With a UNSC delegation smaller than Togo, India's resources were fully stretched. It took some criticism regarding its approach to Syria, but Indian officials say the first and only outcome document on Syria was a presidential statement (PRST) adopted during India's presidency of the UNSC in August 2011.
India supported the Kofi Annan initiative as well as the Lakhdar Brahimi one, while the IBSA countries unusually sent a delegation to meet Bashar Al Assad to seek a peaceful resolution. Equally unusually, Syria attracted three double-vetoes, which shows the deep polarization of the world body.
India also weathered similar criticism on Libya because of its abstention on resolution 1973, but every Indian assessment has concluded that it was on the right side of history regarding its objections to the Libya enterprise. As an official observed, "Regime changes by externally induced means cannot become the norm of the day."
The Indian action, sources said, led to a UNSC decision to define the boundaries of High Risk Areas based on actual incidents. The decision, officials said, has been picked up by the insurance industry to adopt new global norms on these lines.
A lot of India's efforts went into "blocking" initiatives — to keep the counter-terrorism focus of UNSCR 1988 and 1989 on al-Qaida and Taliban, to make sure the international community did not come nosing into Maldives, to block the US from pushing through a resolution on nuclear proliferation keeping the primacy of the NPT. But that, as officials said, is a function of India's current international position, where it is a rising power, but still beset with a number of vulnerabilities which would be exacerbated as a result of international attention.
An official said this is similar to what China used to be in the 1990s, when it stayed largely silent. Now that China has greater weight, the Chinese function with much greater confidence. For instance, Beijing tabled several resolutions on Syria, even if they went nowhere.
The unwritten issue that keeps India from taking a larger role is obviously the lack of hands on deck. With miniscule delegations, India has to deal with countries like South Korea and Japan, not to speak of China, who come with ample bench strength.
The reality check for India was that despite everybody's best efforts, it will not make it as a permanent member of the UN Security Council anytime soon. The second reality check is that just being on the UNSC is not enough, if one is not a member of the P-5. While on the one hand, the UNSC is losing international relevance, it remains a club where the top decisions are only made by five powers. That's not about to change.
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