Context:  The In writing the new rules and reshaping the global order, India needs to strengthen its recent turn to a more dynamic coalition building.

About:

• First, Delhi should shed the illusion, cultivated since the 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995 that the expansion of the permanent membership of UNSC, with or without veto, is within reach.
• This week a moment of celebration for the United Nations — the 75th anniversary of its founding. But the pandemic has robbed the UN of all cheer.
• Coronavirus has exposed the structural weakness of the system that was set up amidst the ruins of the Second World War. Put simply, the UN has been unable to respond effectively to the once-in-a-century global crisis triggered by the coronavirus.
• At the UN Security Council, China blocked a serious discussion on the origin and sources of the crisis.
• While the World Health Organization did move a bit in that direction, the US was not satisfied with the outcome and walked out of the forum.
• Those who view the UN through the realist prism are not surprised. Cooperation among the great powers was the precondition for its success in the security arena.
• All that began to change in the first decade of the millennium, when Russia and China began to offer resistance to US dominance.
• By the dawn of the third decade, the conflict between the US on the one hand and China and Russia on the other has become full-blown.
• To make matters more complicated, the West itself is divided. Despite the enduring post-War alliances, there is a growing divergence between Washington and its European partners on many global issues.
• Differences between the US and the other powers are very visible as USA walked out of the nuclear deal with Iran, wants to continue the UN sanctions on Iran. Other powers, including the US’s allies in Europe, are not willing to follow the American lead on this.
• The discord between the US and its European partners underlines the problem with viewing the world through the traditional East-West prism. The US has never been more divided within itself on global issues as it is today.
• Rejection of post-War multilateralism and post-Cold War globalism is at the heart of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
• The current political fragmentation augurs poorly for India’s two-year tenure at the UNSC starting next January. It is an opportunity to restructure India’s traditional approach to the UN. There are huge possibilities for enhancing India’s multilateral standing.
• Delhi must come to terms with a number of propositions.
  • First, it should shed the illusion, cultivated since the 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995 that the expansion of the permanent membership of UNSC, with or without veto, is within reach. UNSC reform is unlikely to happen soon.
  • Second, India’s own experience during the Cold War points to the fact that the UN is a lot more than the Security Council. While the UNSC was dysfunctional, India developed a multilateral agenda of its own — from decolonization and disarmament to a new international economic order — and mobilized considerable political support for it.
  • Third, while promoting big ideas is exciting, Delhi can’t lose sight of the basic relationship between national interest and multilateralism. The primary objective of India’s present multilateralism must be to ensure its territorial integrity, especially at a time when China and Pakistan have mounted a massive effort to internationalize the Kashmir question.
• The question is not merely about playing defence, but also leveraging multilateralism to serve India’s interests.
• In the last few years, Delhi has worked mechanisms like FATF to mount pressure on Pakistan to stop supporting cross-border terrorism in India.
• On both the issues of terrorism and Kashmir, China, once viewed as India’s natural partner in the multilateral arena, has turned out to be the problem.
• The US and the West, traditionally viewed as part of the problem, are now helping India fend off the security challenges in the multilateral arena.
  • Fourth, beyond the issues of peace, there is the big challenge of protecting India’s prosperity amidst the unfolding economic, technological and environmental disruptions. The rules governing all these areas are now up for a significant overhaul. As India learnt from its 1970s experience with the nuclear non-proliferation regime, once the rules are set, it is rather hard to change them.
  • Fifth, in writing the new rules and reshaping the global order, India needs to strengthen its recent turn to a more dynamic coalition building. While reclaiming its role in the Non-Aligned Movement, Delhi has also joined the European alliance for multilateralism. India also knows that much of the new rule-making is likely to take place outside the UN.

Conclusion:

Delhi can’t hope to expand its international influence on the cheap. India’s share in the UN budget stands at 0.7 per cent. The shares of China, Japan and the US are at 8, 10 and 22 per cent respectively. Raising Delhi’s contribution to at least one per cent might convince its partners that India is serious about pursuing a more vigorous multilateralism.

Reference:  https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/india-united-nations-security-council-unsc-tenure-6605320/

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