India to be UN Security Council President for August, 2021
India will intensify engagement at UN to move Security Council reform process ahead, says envoy
UNITED NATIONS: India, which has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, will serve as the president of the powerful 15-nation UN body for the month of August, 2021.
The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the member states' names.
According to the information released by the office of the UN spokesperson, India will assume the rotating presidency of the Council for the month of August next year.
India will preside over the Council again for a month in 2022.
India, Norway, Ireland, Mexico and Kenya were elected as the non-permanent members of the UNSC for a twoyear term beginning January 1, 2021 on Wednesday.
In a first-of-its-kind election, ambassadors and diplomats from 192 member states cast their ballots in the General Assembly wearing masks and in adherence with the strict social distancing guidelines amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
India, the endorsed candidate from the Asia-pacific States, won 184 votes out of the 192 ballots cast.
Tunisia will begin 2021 as the President of the Council in January, followed by a month each for the rest of the year by the UK, the US, Vietnam, China, Estonia, France, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Niger.
In 2021, the newly-elected members India, Ireland, Kenya, Norway and Mexico will sit at the UN high-table along with the five permanent members -China, France, Russia, the UK and the US -- as well as nonpermanent members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam.
The two-year terms of Belgium, Dominican Republic,
Germany, Indonesia and South Africa are ending this year. This is the eighth time that India will sit at the Council's horseshoe-shaped table. Previously, India was elected for the years 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 19841985, 1991-1992 and most recently in 2011-2012.
India will intensify its engagement at the United Nations to move the longpending Security Council reform process forward as the
UNSC'S current structure no
longer reflects the geopolitical realities of the 21st century, according to the country's envoy at the world body.
India has been at the forefront of efforts at the United Nations to push for an urgent
long-pending reform of the Security Council, emphasising that it rightly deserves a place at the UN high table as a permanent member.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said: We are of the view that Council's membership no longer reflects the geopolitical realities of the 21st century and needs urgent reform. This is one of our five priorities we have set out .
His remarks came after India on Wednesday overwhelmingly won the election to the Security Council for a non-permanent seat.
While the Security Council needs reform, the Council itself is not initially the forum for discussing it, Tirumurti said, adding that as per the 2008 General Assembly resolution, the Security Council reforms will be discussed by the member states at the Intergovernmental Negotiation (IGN) process in an informal plenary of the General Assembly.
The General Assembly has renewed the mandate of the IGN annually, and it remains the principal vehicle for Council reform discussions today, he said.
Noting that it has been 11 years since the first round of the IGN was held on February 19, 2009, he said this is “clearly a very unsatisfactory situation.”
We will intensify our engagement with all reformminded member states and groups such as the G4 bloc of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, the Africa group, L.69 group of developing countries, the African Union Committee of 10 (C10) and “explore ways and means of taking the discussions forward in the IGN.”
India, the endorsed candidate from the Asia-pacific States grouping, garnered 184 votes out of the total 192 polled in the Security Council elections on Wednesday in the UN General Assembly.
Along with India, Norway, Ireland and Mexico will join the Security Council as the non-permanent members for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2021.