New Delhi has argued that keeping it off the Security Council brings the credibility of the global body into question
The “weighty responsibility” of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council is “not beyond India’s capability,” United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis has said as New Delhi pushes for a more inclusive world order.
“To become a permanent member is an extremely weighty responsibility, which I am sure is not beyond the capacity of the government of India,” Dennis told news agency ANI on Tuesday.
However, he said the question of when that might happen is one for UN members to decide “in the context of the reform agenda that’s taking place within the Security Council.” Dennis underlined that Security Council reform is not an “event,” but “an ongoing process.”
The senior diplomat, who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, said India had been “a voice of the Global South for some time.” He called the African Union’s inclusion in the G20, which was made under India’s presidency last month, a “defining moment.”
India’s diversity, with its many cultures and languages, is “in itself is a powerful message for political success,” said Francis, adding that New Delhi has many lessons it can share “not just with the Global South, but with the entire international community.”
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishanka has been making a case for a permanent seat on the Security Council in recent months.
“The world’s largest country in terms of population and the fifth-largest economy cannot be kept out of this, and if it is kept out, there will be questions raised on the credibility of the United Nations,” he said at an event with university students last month. He has also argued that if the UN does not reform, “people will find solutions outside.”
India wrapped up its two-year stint as a non-permanent member of the UNSC last year, during which it was one of the leading voices calling for reforms.
A survey of global strategists and experts conducted earlier this year by pro-NATO think tank, the Atlantic Council, found that India was likely to receive a seat on the UNSC if new seats are added in the coming years.
While 26% of respondents said India would receive a new permanent seat within the next ten years, while 64% of respondents said they believed that no new seats would be added, according to the survey.
Among the five permanent members of the Council, the US, UK, France, and Russia have expressed support for India’s permanent membership. China is the only country of the five that is opposing its entry into the group.
