“On the challenge of terrorism, even as the world is coming together with a more collective response, multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators,” he said…reports Asian Lite News
Multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators of terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday during an open debate at the UN Security Council, in a veiled attack on China and its close ally Pakistan.
Presiding over the UN Security Council open debate on ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism’, Jaishankar also said the knock on effects of conflict situations have made a strong case that it cannot be “business as usual” in the multilateral domain.
“On the challenge of terrorism, even as the world is coming together with a more collective response, multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators,” he said.
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His remarks appeared to be a reference to repeated holds and blocks on proposals to blacklist terrorists, particularly those based on Pakistani soil like Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, in the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee by veto-wielding permanent members such as China.
Addressing the powerful 15-nation Council, Jaishankar said that reform is the need of the day. “And I am confident that the Global South especially shares India’s determination to persevere,” he said.
“All of us are aware that the ‘Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council’ has been on the UNGA agenda for well over the last three decades. While the debate on reforms has meandered aimlessly, the real world meantime has changed dramatically,” he said.
Jaishankar said, “We have convened here today for an honest conversation about the effectiveness of multilateral institutions created more than 75 years ago. The question before us is how best they can be reformed, particularly as the need to reform is less deniable with each passing year.” The open debate, a signature event held under India’s Presidency of the Security Council for the month, was addressed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and President of the 77th session of the General Assembly Csaba Korosi.
Jaishankar said the call for change has been accelerated by growing stresses on the international system that the world has experienced in recent years.
“On the one hand, they have brought out the inequities and inadequacies of the way the world currently functions. On the other, they have also highlighted that a larger and deeper collaboration is necessary to find solutions,” he said.
Jaishankar said that the knock on effects of conflict situations have also underscored the necessity for more broad based global governance.
“Recent concerns over food, fertilizer and fuel security were not adequately articulated in the highest councils of decision making. Much of the world was therefore led to believe that their interests did not matter. We cannot let that happen again,” he said, an apparent reference to the Ukraine conflict and its impact on food and fuel security across the world.
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