Hyderabad: There is a conflict in the international order between order and justice. Each power latches on to the theme that suits it at that particular point of time was the agreement that was agreed upon in a seminar on India’s place in the emerging world order-reform of UNSC and multilateral forums at the Guruswamy Centre here on Saturday.
Syed Akbaruddin, former permanent representative of India to the UN, said, “The discussion on reforms of the UN is as old as the UN itself. We spoke about justice when we were born as a nation. The USA talks of justice in Ukraine and order in Gaza. We were the tenth biggest economy in 1980 and are now projected to be the second biggest economy in 2075. So we are planning for the future based on our plans even if they don’t materialise.”
“The issue is not restricted to permanent membership in the Security Council. Our argument is that the Council has had 15 members with five having veto powers when there were 90 members. It now has 193 members and there is a need to change.”
He further explained that the UN working methods had not been formalised. There is a discussion that use of veto power be restricted to substantive issues and not procedural issues but the US, China and Russia which have used it don’t want change. The UK and France have not used it for more than 30 years now, he said.
Explaining that global bodies may not thrive but we need them to survive, the diplomat said, “We are investing in some new alliances like international solar alliance, global biofuels alliance and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, among others. We thought we can export more to China but the reverse is happening.”
Elaborating on the unfolding scenario, he said that Elon Musk launching 125 satellites is way higher than India has in the last 50 years will bring changes.
Agreeing with him on power being central in the international order, Bala Venkatesh Verma, former ambassador to Russia, opined, “we may pat ourselves for being the largest democracy, that we represent the global south, has not had a major famine unlike earlier and being a four trillion dollar economy but they pale in comparison to others.”
“While we can have pride over our achievements like the digital revolution and startups doing well, we should remember that while we and China were at the same level in 1949, they are now a 20 trillion dollar economy and USA is 27 trillion dollars. If we remove the top 10 per cent, our per capita income will fall in the same bracket as African countries.”
He said our missiles and satellites are fine but we haven’t produced a single aviation plane of our own yet. Self-confidence is not enough; we are not exempt from the laws of power, he explains.
Moderating the discussion commentator Mohan Guruswamy said, “Politicians have a penchant with making India a permanent member of the security council but reforming it and changing the world order are different. So far 68 countries have supported our bid for the UNSC seat. The international order is based on the primacy of the dollar and Donald Trump has warned countries not to meddle with the situation.”
