India, Pakistan to face off at 'open debate' at UNSC

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will come face-to-face at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York on Wednesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will chair a UNSC ministerial meet at the on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism.” It is one of the signature events being held at the UNSC during the month-long presidency of India.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will also take part in the meeting.

Though Pakistan is not a member of the Security Council, it can attend the meeting as it is an ‘open debate’ and all the UN member states can participate.

The meeting may see a war of words between the two neighbouring nations as Pakistan may try to use the opportunity to raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to embarrass India while presenting its national statement, just as it did in the past.

Jaishankar and Zardari had in the past attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s meeting in Uzbekistan in July and the UN General Assembly in New York in September. They, however, never had a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the multilateral conclaves.

India took over as the president of the UNSC for the second time during its current two-year-long term as one of the non-permanent member of the council on December 1. Its term as a member of the council will end on December 31.

The primary focus of the open debate on Reformed Multilateralism is to encourage all UNSC member states to seriously address the pressing need for reforms in the global governance multilateral architecture, including the long-standing reforms of the UN Security Council. The meeting will also witness briefings by the Secretary General of the United Nations and the President of the 77th UN General Assembly, according to a press release on the external affairs minister’s visit to New York.

The high-level briefing on counter terrorism will seek to promote consensus among the UNSC members on the broad principles of a global counter-terror architecture and aim to further build upon the Delhi Declaration adopted during the Special Meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee held on October 28-30 in Mumbai and New Delhi.

Jaishankar will also be unveiling Mahatma Gandhi’s Bust at the premises of the UN Headquarters. The bust, a gift from the Government of India to the United Nations, will be the first to be installed at the UN Headquarters.