UNITED NATIONS: Describing the Security Council as a product of “circumstances of a bygone era”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told UN chief Ban Ki-moon that the Council must include India to make it more representative and the reforms must be implemented within a fixed timeframe.
“…whatever we seek to do as the United Nations, from dealing with the transformed security environment to ensuring the effective implementation of the post-2015 Development Agenda, our relevance and effectiveness will depend in large measure on the internal reform of the United Nations, especially its Security Council,” Modi said in a letter to the UN Secretary General.
“This is one of the most urgent and important, even if difficult tasks before us,” Modi said in the letter dated July 4.
The letter was made available by India’s Permanent Mission to the UN during a press briefing here yesterday.
Modi arrives at the world body’s headquarters in about a week to address the high-level Sustainable Development Summit on September 25.
The Indian leader said that the Security Council, as constituted currently, is the product of circumstances of a “bygone era”.
“It must now reflect the realities and needs of the 21st century. A Security Council that includes the world’s largest democracy, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents, will carry greater credibility and legitimacy and will be more representative and effective,” he wrote.
As the UN commemorates its 70th anniversary this year, Modi said that “we are at a moment when we must close the endless debates of the past two and a half decades, and agree in a democratic manner in the United Nations General Assembly to set into motion the long needed reforms in the United Nations Security Council to be implemented with the broadest possible support and within a fixed timeframe.”
As world leaders gather here next week for the landmark UN session, Modi said “posterity should remember the 70th anniversary not as a missed opportunity but as a moment when the world collectively honored its covenant with the poor of our world, with its women, with its youth, with nature, and with the voiceless unborn.”
“I am confident that we will, as we have so often done, rise to our responsibilities.”
Modi also underscored to the UN Chief that eliminating poverty by 2030 should “unquestionably” be at the heart of the post-2015 Development Agenda.
“The most acute forms of poverty still remain the most pressing problem and require direct, urgent and sustained interventions.
“Addressing the needs, concerns and human rights of 1.3 billion poor people in the world is not merely a question of their survival and dignity, but also a vital necessity for an enduring peaceful, sustainable and just international order,” he said.
The post-2015 Development Agenda should ensure that no one is left behind and “we must rekindle the strength of international support and partnership that had characterized some of our social missions in the past for tackling poverty,” he said.
Modi highlighted that his government’s touchstone remains inclusive growth “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas, or participation of all and development for all”.
On climate change, Modi said in the Paris summit later this year, nations must craft a global agreement, in accordance with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, to limit the rise in earth’s temperature.
“We should go beyond targets and focus also on the need for provision of the finance and the technology to give developing nations the capabilities and the resources to mitigate climate change, as also to adapt and adjust to its impact,” he said.
“We all agree that climate change is one of the most formidable global challenges. Nations around the world are already facing its consequences; and for many, especially small Island nations and those with low-lying coastal areas, it is an existential issue. Combating climate change is our collective obligation to our planet,” he said.
The Indian leader pointed out that India has started pricing carbon, incentivising afforestation has set a target of generation capacity of 175 GW of solar and wind energy by 2022.–PTI
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