Speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday that the United Nations is like an "old company" occupying space in the market since it does not evolve as the world does.
"Well, since this is an economic conclave, let me give you a businesslike answer. The UN, in a way, is like an old company, not fully keeping up with the market but occupying the space. And, when it's behind times in this world, you have startups and innovation. So, different people start doing their own things," Jaishankar said.
He explains that while it would be wonderful if the UN were to actually take the lead on global efforts, reality dictates that whenever the UN doesn't act on some of its key issues, countries invent their own mechanisms.
"There is a UN at the end of the day, however suboptimal it is in functioning, it's still the only multilateral game in town. But when it doesn't step up on key issues, countries figure out their own ways of doing it," Jaishankar added.
Refer to the role of UN in the Covid-19 pandemic, EAM Jaishankar also stated that the contribution by UN was pretty limited. He said: "Probably the biggest thing that happened in our life was Covid. Think about what the UN do on Covid, and I think the answer is not very much."
He again mentioned the inactions of UN over the major global conflicts, especially the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as the current Middle East crisis.
Two very serious conflicts are ongoing in the world. Where is the UN on them? Essentially, a bystander. So what is happening is that as you saw even during Covid, countries either did their own thing or you had an initiative like Covax, which was done by a group of countries, Jaishankar remarked.
When it comes to the big issues of the day, increasingly, you will find combinations of countries who come together and say, let's agree on this and let's go and do it," he added.
Jaishankar cited recent examples such as the connectivity initiative that involves India, Middle Eastern countries, European countries, and the US. As well, there are alliances like QUAD and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure that function independently.
"The UN will continue, but increasingly there's a non-UN space, which is the active space," he concluded.
India has been batting for expansion of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) both in permanent and non-permanent categories, besides reform in its working methods. Obtaining a permanent membership for India in an expanded UNSC has been among the top items of its agenda for the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Reforms to the UNSC are currently being addressed within the UN General Assembly's framework for Inter-Governmental Negotiation. India, on its part, is also bilaterally working along with reform-oriented countries through its membership in G-4 (India, Japan, Brazil, and Germany), as well as in the L.69 Group, comprising cross-regional countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, for garnering support in both the permanent as well as non-permanent categories of UN Member States for expansion.
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