Countries who feel neighbours may have chance to become UNSC member oppose its expansion: India

India's envoy at the UN calls for Security Council reform, emphasizing the need for a multilateral system fit for today's realities.

“India is “unsatisfied” with the pace of progress on Security Council reform,” the country’s envoy at the United Nations (UN) said, noting that there are countries who prefer the status quo and those that oppose expansion in the permanent category “at all costs” as they feel their neighbours may have a chance to become a member.

“The Security Council structure, as it stands today, is a reflection of 1945. It does not reflect today's realities,” India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said during a conversation here on Tuesday (November 19, 2024.)

Mr. Harish delivered the keynote address on ‘Responding to Key Global Challenges: The India Way’ at an event at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Mr. Harish gave an expansive overview of the “India way” on key global issues ranging from reformed multilateralism, terrorism, demography, India’s digital revolution to the country’s youth, climate change, democracy, healthcare and vaccines.

The event was co-sponsored by the MPA programme in Global Leadership and the International Organisation and U.N. Studies programme (IO/UNS) and attended by students, faculty and policy experts.

He noted that the United Nations does “great work" in the humanitarian field, addressing the humanitarian requirements of hundreds of millions around the world as well as in the development domain — children's health, public health, and labour through its specialised institutions.

“Yet for the common man on the street, their perception, the lenses through which they view the UN is neither the humanitarian dimension nor the development dimension or the public health dimension. They only look at the inability of the UN to stop conflicts in areas including Ukraine and the Middle East. That is the view they have and that is probably the only yardstick by which they are assessing the efficiency of the UN,” he said during a panel discussion after the keynote address.