Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj talking on the UNGA, in New York. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
India has mentioned that blocking evidence-based proposals in the U.N. Security Council to blacklist international terrorists with out justification smacks of “double-speak” in coping with the scourge, a veiled reference to China that has put holds on bids to sanction Pakistan-based terrorists.
“Let us turn to the subsidiary bodies inhabiting a subterranean world, with their own custom-made working methods and obscure practices which do not find any legal basis in the Charter or any of the Council’s resolutions,” India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj mentioned.
Ms. Kamboj was referring to the sanctions committee of the U.N. Security Council as she delivered India’s assertion on the open debate on March 11 on the Working Methods of the 15-nation U.N. physique.
“For instance, while we do get to know of the decisions of these committees on listing, the decisions on rejecting listing requests are not made public. This is indeed a disguised veto, but an even more impervious one that indeed merits a discussion amongst the wider membership,” she mentioned.
Ms. Kamboj highlighted that “genuine, evidence-based listing proposals for globally sanctioned terrorists to be blocked, without giving any due justification, is uncalled for and smacks of double-speak when it comes to the Council’s commitment to tackling the challenge of terrorism.” Ms. Kamboj’s remarks appeared to be a veiled reference to the Council’s everlasting and veto-wielding member China that has repeatedly blocked or put technical holds on bids by India and supported by different Council members beneath the 1267 al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists.
In June 2023, China blocked a proposal by India and the U.S. to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Sajid Mir, wished for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist assaults, as a world terrorist beneath the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the Security Council.
On varied events in the previous, Beijing, an all-weather pal of Islamabad, positioned holds and blocks on bids by India to record Pakistan-based terrorists.
In May 2019, India had received an enormous diplomatic win on the U.N. when the worldwide physique designated Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”, a decade after New Delhi had first approached the world physique on the problem.
Ms. Kamboj additional mentioned that as an organ of the United Nations tasked with the upkeep of worldwide peace and safety, the talk on the Council’s working strategies stays extraordinarily related, particularly in the backdrop of Ukraine and Gaza.
“As such, how much has the Security Council been able to deliver on peace and security, with both feet firmly fixed in the past, is a larger question that the member states need to collectively ponder upon,” she mentioned.
The Council has remained deeply polarised and failed on a number of events to take motion on resolutions to take care of the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts due to vetos forged by its everlasting members such because the US and Russia.
“As the threats to international peace and security evolve, so must this Council. We ask those blocking progress on this vital issue to heed calls for genuine reform, and contribute to making this Council truly fit for purpose for the 21st century,” she mentioned.
Reiterating the necessity for pressing UNSC reforms, Ms. Kamboj mentioned, “We also witness an equitable representation sized hole in the Security Council between the P5 and E10,” referring to the 5 everlasting members — China, France, Russia, the U.Ok. and the U.S. and the remaining 10 non-permanent Council members elected for 2-year phrases.
“What we therefore need is a Security Council that better reflects contemporary realities – the geographical and developmental diversity of the multipolar world of today, including the voices of the developing countries and unrepresented regions, like Africa, Latin America and the vast majority of Asia and the Pacific. For this, an expansion of the Council in both categories of membership is absolutely essential,” she mentioned.
Ms. Kamboj asserted that the worldwide group can now not disguise behind the “smokescreen” of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on UNSC reform by delivering “entrenched national positions in a process which has no time frame, and no text”. “We should embark upon the only established process in the U.N., which is by engaging in negotiations based on text and not through speaking at each other, or past each other, as we have done for the past three decades,” she mentioned.
Last week, India offered an in depth mannequin on behalf of the G4 nations — Brazil, Germany, Japan and itself — for Security Council reform that features new everlasting members elected democratically by the General Assembly and shows flexibility on the veto situation, as Delhi emphasised that the U.N.’s 80th anniversary subsequent yr serves as a milestone to obtain concrete progress on the long-pending topic.