India will begin its tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on January 1. India will sit in the 15-nation UNSC as a non-permanent member, the eighth time that the country has had a seat on the powerful horseshoe table.

India’s message will also be to ensure “how do we let diversity flourish in a united framework, which is in many ways the United Nations itself. This is something which India as a country, as what it stands for, will take to the council.”

India’s permanent representative to the UN----1----said India will “definitely” emphasise on a greater need for cooperation in the council, where “because of paralysis of decision making, urgent requirements do not get properly focused. We would like to have a more cooperative structure in which we genuinely look out and find solutions and go beyond the rhetoric.”

India will also underscore the importance of respect for rule of law and international law. The current multilateralism is not factoring in multipolarity. When you have a structure, which is able to accommodate the multipolarity in a multilateral framework, then automatically (there is) a more responsive, more rule-bound and more inclusive process.

“Broadly, these are some messages we will carry in various degrees…We will be a country which will reinforce multilateralism. That would be the biggest strength of India in many ways when it gets into the Security Council,” ---1--- said.

---1---has outlined counter-terrorism; peacekeeping; maritime security; reformed multilateralism; technology; women, youth and developmental issues, especially in the context of peace-building, as India’s priorities for the UNSC tenure. “I feel India’’s presence in the Security Council is needed at this juncture when there are deep fissures between P-5 themselves and also between other countries. The UN is losing coherence and we hope to bring this back by focusing on issues of priority to all member states.”

India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the council. On the long-delayed UNSC reforms,---1--- said hardly any progress was made in the last decade. “Not a single thing has moved. Is this the type of process we want or can we collectively come to a slightly better process which will yield results,” he asked.

----1---also said that in the last few months, he had tried to define India’s interests a “bit more sharply”, including on the question of terrorism. “We have asked for terrorism to be pursued with a single-minded determination and not make excuses,” the Indian envoy said.

Addressing the virtual high-level General Assembly session in September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that as a Security Council member, India will not hesitate to raise its voice against enemies of humanity, including terrorism, and will speak in support of peace, security and prosperity.

Mr. Modi had asserted that reform in the responses, processes and in the very character of the United Nations was the “need of the hour” as he questioned, “for how long will India, the world’s largest democracy and home to 1.3 billion people, be kept out of the decision-making structures of the UN.”

India, the endorsed candidate from the Asia-Pacific States, won 184 votes out of the 192 ballots cast in the elections in June for the five non-permanent seats of the Security Council.