India at the UNGA

What is the issue?

• India called off the planned meeting with Pakistan in New York ahead of the United Nations General Assembly's annual session.
• In this backdrop, it is essential that India looks beyond Pakistan and engage with structural changes in the international system.

How have the roles changed?

• There was a time when the voices of both Pakistan and India mattered on the world stage.
• Pakistan was a key member of the Western alliance system in Asia.
• It rightly saw itself as a pragmatic Islamic nation capable of exercising influence in the Middle East.
• It had the prospects of acting as a bridge between America and China.
• But today, Pakistan’s diminished diplomacy drags on the Kashmir issue.
• India’s political voice too mattered a lot at the UN, long back, when its economic weight was rather limited.
• India is now on its growing economic prominence and expanding global footprint.
• But despite this, India seems obsessed with a few issues rather than engage with the larger international issues.

Why has India become so?

• India persists with the quest for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, when all indications are that it is unlikely to happen.
• It has also devoted too much energy in the pursuit of the international convention against terrorism.
• However, this is unlikely to do very much in addressing India’s security challenges.
• More so, the UN resolutions are honoured by nations more in breach than in observance.
• What have benefited India are key partnerships on counter-terrorism. E.g. with the US and Arab Gulf partners
• This is more workable than the endorsement of general principles under multilateralism.

Why should India look beyond Pakistan?

• India's relationship with Pakistan is not in its god phase at present.
• India blamed ‘Pakistan-based entities’ for the recent killing of three special police officers in Kashmir.
• The prospect of a diplomatic encounter between India and Pakistan has remained a focus in many multilateral gatherings.
• For more than two decades now, this question seems to sensationalize the Indian public interest in multilateral gatherings.
• The strained relations have deepened the inability of the two countries to engage with the larger global issues.
• So if India looks beyond Pakistan, terrorism and a UNSC seat, it could discuss much more in the UN.

What are the global issues to be resolved?

• Sovereignty - The foremost is balancing between the questions of sovereignty and multilateralism.

• Defending sovereignty was a key priority in India’s UN diplomacy since the end of the Cold War.
• This is now being revived by the developments in regards with the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump.
• E.g. withdrawal from the Paris agreement, the UN Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the UN Human Rights Council, etc
• The essence of Trump’s “America First” has been the promise to liberate US from the “globalist trap”.
• He insists that he will not let multilateral organisations restrain America’s pursuit of its national interests.
• Given these, sovereignty will once again be the dominant theme in this year's session.
• Global Trade - Trump is threatening to pull out of the WTO and choking its dispute-settlement mechanism.
• Key trading nations are already beginning to respond with proposals for reform.
• If it does not change, the WTO and the international order in trade may not survive the Trump era.
• Middle East - Trump is making big moves in the Middle East that breaks away from the conventional thinking on the region.
• He has ended the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration.
• He is promising to press for a change in “regime behaviour” in Iran.
• There is also effort on constructing a new Middle East Security Alliance of Arab nations threatened by Iran.

What lies before India?

• The geopolitics of the Gulf region is undergoing unprecedented change.
• This is a significant concern for India as it has massive economic and political stakes there.
• A similar issue is the world trading system and the nature of multilateralism.
• India’s diplomatic engagements at the UN should be about crafting a new strategy to address these challenges.

Source: Indian Express