Good diplomacy, but...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook another foreign trip, September 22-28, combining a visit to Ireland with the annual United Nations jamboree that most leaders of the 193 members undertake every September. This year was special being the 70th birth anniversary of the UN. Additionally, the high-level general debate was preceded on September 25-26 by a special session on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to adopt new goals for 2015-30, succeeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for the period 2000-2015.

Coinciding with this, Prime Minister Modi convened a summit of the G4, consisting of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan. The group was created in 2005 to make joint efforts for meaningful reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Since then it has had moments of close coordination as well as dissonance over tactics. However, the move by the president of the United Nations General Assembly of the previous session on September 11, 2015, to put the “Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council, etc.” on the agenda of the current session for text-based intergovernmental negotiations cleared a preliminary hurdle to reform.

India seized the opportunity to rally its allies to give a fillip to the process. The dramatic dash from the airport to the meeting of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the presence of both the beleaguered President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, as well as the elusive German Chancellor Angela Merkel increased the buzz around the meeting. In a joint statement, the four leaders agreed to work for “early and meaningful reform”. They also sought “concrete outcomes” in the current session.

There is still a mountain to climb as what may be acceptable to the US — which in private urges a modest expansion, fearing too large a UNSC will be dysfunctional — may be too small to obtain the support of Africa, Latin America, etc., for getting the two-thirds majority needed for the UN Charter amendment. Most workable models, adding new permanent and non-permanent members, total 25 or so from the current strength of 15 (five permanent and 10 others).

However, with 26 odd pages of collated views on the table, perhaps G4 can take the initiative to kick off a negotiating text. Possibly the L-69 group of developing countries, which began with 22 members but today numbers over 40, whose secretariat the Indian mission hosts, can form the core that devises the next steps.
Prime Minister Modi addressed the special UN session on September 25 with passion and ease.

Many aspects of the sustainable development theme mesh with Prime Minister Modi’s own national programmes or experience as chief minister. Unlike the MDGs, which had eight points focused on lifting globally those in extreme poverty, there are 17 SDGs with another 169 associated targets, making it a more holistic approach to growth. It is being realised that donations or funds alone may not be the solution. A more targeted approach based on better data availability is recognised as a condition precedent.

Prime Minister Modi in his address to the UN linked the SDGs to his government’s priorities, like “Swachch Bharat”, as indeed to traditional Indian culture, invoking “Mother Earth”. Knowing that hidden in the SDGs was the move to impose caps on emissions and the climate change agenda of the West, the Prime Minister reiterated the old Kyoto Protocol mantra of “common but differentiated” responsibilities, which puts primary responsibility for adaptation and mitigation on the industrialised world. He voiced the phrase “climate justice”, underscoring that the Indian approach will be conditioned by developmental imperatives.

The Obama-Modi meeting, after Mr Modi’s return from the US West coast, a third encounter in a year, perforce became issue-specific, with each side pushing their agenda. The US urged India on climate change, promising to help with technology and financing, both aspects left nebulous. India intoned with the usual mix of military, security and counter-terrorism cooperation enhancement, UNSC reform, Indian entry into the four technology control regimes and economic cooperation. In Mr Modi’s words, they discussed “immediate priorities and strategic partnership”.

However, as they mooted how to stabilise Afghanistan, Kunduz became the first major city to fall to the Taliban after 2001. India reiterated its desire to join the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping, concerned that Sino-US jostling and the US proposing a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trading area smaller than APEC but involving 12 countries having 40 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product, may see India locked out.

The Prime Minister’s visit to the Silicon Valley region around San Jose, California, produced highs and lows. His outreach to the technology innovators of the brave new cyber world was imaginative. The brick-and-mortar economy of India needs the e-marketing enablers and start-ups. Besides venture capital, India needs experienced techies. However, Prime Minister’s penchant for interaction with the diaspora, which he tends to turn into nationalistic and partisan rallies, unmindful that most attendees may be US citizens, creates unnecessary controversy back home.

Stephen Cohen, respected scholar on South Asia, said on television that importing Indian domestic politics into his US foray was “amateurish” of Prime Minister Modi as it distracted from his diplomatic success. A time-tested convention is that leaders of democracies leave domestic political differences at the airport when they fly abroad. Concomitantly, the Opposition avoids flinging barbs at travelling leaders.

It was a well-constructed visit, weaving key elements of Prime Minister Modi’s developmental strategy into the UN’s new agenda for the next 15 years, President Barack Obama’s legacy issues, UNSC reform and outreach to the world of technology and innovation. Hopefully, lessons will be learnt and when Prime Minister Modi visits the UK in November, where again the diaspora awaits at Wembley, the statesman in Mr Modi will trump the “pracharak”.

The writer is a former secretary in the external affairs ministry. He tweets at @ambkcsingh