India's Jaishankar Urges UN Reform Amid Gridlock Concerns

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has once again stressed the need to reform the United Nations, arguing that the global organisation has increasingly struggled to play a meaningful role in resolving major international issues. He also pointed to growing concerns that the UN Security Council no longer reflects the interests of the wider international community, while noting that the reform process faces resistance. Speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave, Jaishankar reiterated his criticism of the UN's current functioning. "Where the UN is concerned, I think it's obvious to everybody by now that the UN is gridlocked. That if you look at the big issues of the day, whether you look at the conflict in the Gulf, whether you look at the conflict in Ukraine, whether you look at other issues in Africa, whether you look at COVID, actually, the United Nations has been largely irrelevant to the decision-making," he had said. Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? On the UN Security Council, Jaishankar said there is a "widely held view that a lot of it is because the Security Council is gridlocked and that the Security Council no longer represents the entirety of the global interest". He highlighted how significantly the UN's membership has expanded since its establishment, noting that the organisation began with 51 members and has now grown to nearly four times that number. "If you have grown four times and you want to keep the old board of management, it is not going to work. It is common sense," he said. Jaishankar also pointed to opposition from certain countries that he said were unwilling to support changes to the UN, though he did not identify them. According to him, some of these players are "using the name of Africa" to obstruct reform. He described this as an "irony", arguing that Africa "actually now has a clear position". Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? He said African nations have participated in intergovernmental negotiations and clearly communicated the changes they want to see, having already outlined their position on the issue. "So, I think we need to see whether, you know, we will continue to watch, in a sense, the irrelevance or the, I would say, ineffectiveness is a better word of the UN. And it is an important question because we need the UN. The UN has done a big service to the international community. Our job must be to fix the UN, not to work around the UN. But the UN itself has to help with that process," he added. Jaishankar has raised similar concerns about the UN's functioning in the past, arguing that the answer is not to abandon the organisation but to strengthen and reform it. "We don't need no UN... The idea is not to throw away the UN, but to fix the UN," he had said.