One election down, India braces for another to UNSC

Even as the long-drawn-out parliamentary polls finally inch towards an end, India on Wednesday launched a campaign for yet another battle of ballots — this one to win a “non-permanent” seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

New Delhi chose a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the capital of Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday to launch its campaign to win a non-permanent seat at the UNSC for a two-year-term. “(The) SCO must support the member countries’ candidatures for the non-permanent membership of UNSC for the years 2021-2022 and 2027-2028,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said at the meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers in Bishkek.

India is set to contest the election at the United Nations General Assembly in 2020 to secure a “non-permanent” seat at the UNSC for the 2021-2022 period, sources told the DH. Swaraj, however, did not directly refer to India's candidature for the UNSC seat.

The UNSC has five permanent members — United States, United Kingdom, China, Russia and France — and 10 non-permanent members, who are elected by the UNGA for a two-year term on the Horseshoe Table.

India served as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for seven terms in the past — 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92 and 2011-12.

The election at the UNGA in October 2010 saw India securing a record 187 of the 190 valid votes to win the non-permanent seat at the Security Council for the 2011-12 term.

India will seek re-election to the Security Council eight years after its last term ended in December 2012.

The SCO, perceived as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), is led by Russia and China — two permanent members of the UNSC. It admitted India and Pakistan as its members in 2017. The bloc also comprises Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic.

India and Vietnam recently discussed about forthcoming elections to the “non-permanent seats” at the Security Council during President Ram Nath Kovind's visit to Hanoi in November 2018. India committed its support to Vietnam for the 2020-2021 term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC. Vietnam too pledged its support to India for the 2021-2022 term in the most powerful body of the UN, sources in New Delhi told the DH.

Bolivia too pledged support to the candidacy of India during Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu's visit to the country. So did Chile in exchange of India's pledge of support for its candidacy for the 2029-2030 term.

New Delhi has also been in the forefront to seek expansion of the Security Council – both in permanent and non-permanent categories.

India, Germany, Brazil and Japan also floated a group called G-4 to press for early reform and expansion of the UNSC. All the G-4 members are aspirant for a permanent seat in the body.