Reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and a push for the development agenda will be among the priority areas for India during external affairs minister S.M. Krishna participation in the 67the session of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
During his six-day visit beginning September 27, Mr Krishna will be outlining India’s priorities in his speech before the UNGA on October 1. He will also meet US secretary of state Hillary Clinton the same day. In what will be a busy schedule, the minister will also be visiting Milwaukee to meet the families of those killed during a recent shootout in a gurdwara there.
Outlining India’s priorities at the UNGA, official sources noted that the session is being held at a time of “uncertainties” the world over. While there is the economic downturn on the one hand, there is the Arab Spring that has also been grabbing attention.
With New Delhi making a consistent push for UNSC reforms, including the expansion of this important UN body to accommodate more permanent and non-permanent members, sources here said that “it’s a work in progress”.
Noting that inter-governmental negotiations were held this year on the issue of UNSC reforms, sources noted with satisfaction that these are now text-based and a significant improvement over the high-level debate that was conducted over several years. A hopeful New Delhi now plans to have more “tangible negotiations” on this matter.
Explaining what they mean by “tangible”, sources said India would like the reforms to happen as quickly as possible though they concede that it is difficult to predict a date by which this will happen.
The development agenda is yet another area that is at the “core of our interest at the moment”, said sources.
Noting that for India it has been a hard-won battle at Rio-plus 20, they maintained that India has managed to “fashion out a development agenda in which poverty eradication is still the central goal”.
Stating that the Rio summit in June reaffirmed the principles of 1992, sources said it means that environment and development need to taken forward in a “balanced and equitable manner”.