India seeks reform of global security structure

UNITED NATIONS - India has called for a reform of the international structure for maintaining peace and security and peacebuilding while offering its unmatched nation building experience for global efforts towards greater development and improved security.

“No country has contributed as many peacekeepers to as many peacekeeping operations as India,” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Friday speaking at the UN Security Council for the first time since India became a non-permanent member of the top UN decision making body.

Calling for a reform of the international structure for maintaining peace and security and peacebuilding, Krishna said: “Global power and the capacities to address problems are much more dispersed than they were six decades ago. The current framework must address these realities.”

Noting that India had returned to the top UN body after 19 years which “have been transformational for India,” he said: “We believe that an effective and efficient Security Council is in our common interest and we will work towards strengthening it.”

India, he said, understands the expectations that accompany its Council membership and acutely conscious of the need for effective coordination between the five permanent members and “the elected members, especially those whose credentials for permanent membership stand acknowledged.”

“On issues concerning international peace and security, all of us are on the same page,” Krishna said expressing happiness that the process of closer cooperation is making headway.

The minister also reaffirmed India’s commitment to making its vast experience in over six decades of nation building available to global efforts towards greater development and improved security.

“Our peacekeepers have been early peacebuilders. We are also committed to contribute, bilaterally and multilaterally, to development initiatives,” he said.

To this end, Krishna said India was working through the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) mechanism, with the African Union and with regional African groupings to promote South-South perspectives on development and security.

Recalling Mahatma Gandhi’s remark that “poverty is the worst form of violence,” he noted the United Nations Charter, recognizing that violence and the lack of development are interrelated, commits it to promoting “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

As”unevenness of the development process and disparities prevailing on a regional, national and global scale feed into a vicious cycle,” he said: ” Our efforts should therefore focus on promoting development for all by encouraging economic activity and enhancing their livelihood security.”