India will work for a secure, peaceful and equitable world where the voice of the Global South is heard in equal measure, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Monday (July 13, 2026).

Mr. Jaishankar made these remarks as he launched India’s official campaign for a non-permanent seat at the UNSC for the 2028–29 term.

He outlined in detail India’s approach to the United Nations, emphasising that it is rooted in ‘Shanti: Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust, Integrity’ as he launched India’s campaign for the two-year tenure at an event in the UN headquarters attended by UN Ambassadors, diplomats and officials.

“India’s focus will be on working for a secure, peaceful, and equitable world-a world where the voice of the Global South is heard in equal measure. A world where peacekeeping is ready for contemporary and future challenges. A world where multilateralism reflects contemporary realities and provides effective solutions, not remaining a bystander,” he said.

“A world where the promise of technology is fully realised while safeguarding against its misuse and misapplication. A world as well whose oceans are safe and secure, so that maritime lifelines are not threatened,” Mr. Jaishankar added.

“A world where the scourge of terrorism is countered by choking the resources that feed it, and a world where climate action and climate justice, clean energy transitions, and sustainable growth hold value,” he said on Monday (July 13, 2026).

Mr. Jaishankar will also meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres later in the day. He had undertaken an official visit to Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman from July 5-10 and arrived in New York over the weekend.

From New York, he will go to Brussels on July 14-15, where he will attend the 3rd India-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting and interact with his EU and Belgian counterparts.

Elections for the 2028-29 term will be held in June next year, when India and Tajikistan will compete for the sole seat in the Asia-Pacific Group.

The UNSC elections will come amid significant geopolitical shifts as the world continues to grapple with challenges such as the Ukraine war, the Gaza conflict and the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

India last sat at the UN horseshoe table for the 2021-22 term, its eighth time in the UN Security Council after stints in 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992, 2011-2012.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the Parliament of Indonesia this week, had said that the global order is changing rapidly, and in this context, “developing countries like ours are seeking equal participation and a greater role in global affairs.” “In this evolving global landscape, India firmly believes that reforms in the United Nations Security Council can no longer be delayed.” India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts for achieving reform of the Security Council, including expansion in both its permanent and non-permanent categories, saying the 15-nation Council, founded in 1945, is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century and does not reflect contemporary geopolitical realities.

Delhi has consistently underscored that it rightly deserves a permanent seat at the horseshoe table.

India has called for an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of UNSC membership, cautioning that reform of the UN Security Council will border on “failure” if only its non-permanent category is expanded, as this will not “fundamentally” change the decision-making power structure of the five permanent members.

With the UNSC reform process moving at a snail’s pace through the decades, India asserted that a “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” approach must not become a tool to block progress.

“Status-quoists have tried to use this argument in their favour and thereby, entrench the existing inequities in the Security Council,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni had said last month.

Published – July 14, 2026 06:43 am IST

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India has called for bringing to account those who target schools and children with impunity, underscoring that the protection of children without accountability is incomplete.

“Education is a right that should endure in times of conflict. It is a right whose fulfilment is among the most powerful contributions to lasting peace. India remains unwavering in its commitment to protecting children in armed conflict and to upholding their right to learn, to grow, and to realise their full potential,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni said.

He was addressing the UN Security Council open debate on “Strengthening the Prevention of and Protection of Education for Children Affected by Armed Conflict: From Normative Commitments to Effective Implementation” at the United Nations on Wednesday (June 23, 2026).

Mr. Parvathaneni stressed that “protection without accountability is incomplete. Those who target schools and children with impunity must be held to account.”

The UN Secretary General’s latest report on “Children and armed conflict” said that in 2025, violations against children in armed conflict reached “shocking levels,” with an unprecedented number of children affected.

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The United Nations verified 38,558 grave violations, which affected 24,174 children in 2025 (15,493 boys, 7,990 girls, 691 sex unknown), the highest number of children affected by grave violations since the beginning of the mandate.

The number of children subjected to multiple grave violations continued to rise from 3,137 in 2024 to 3,176 in 2025.

“Parties to conflict failed to uphold or proactively undermined their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law and continued to commit grave violations with near-total impunity, resulting in excessive humanitarian consequences for civilians and civilian objects, disproportionately affecting children and the facilities and services they rely on,” the report said, adding that government forces were responsible for a majority of grave violations and were the main perpetrators of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access.

India noted that the Secretary-General’s 2025 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict presents “alarming statistics” – attacks on schools rose by a staggering 44% in a single year.

Mr. Parvathaneni said nearly 473 million children – more than one in six globally – live in or are fleeing conflict zones, and more than 85 million among them have no access to education whatsoever.

“These figures are a damning verdict on humanity’s collective failure to translate commitments into reality on the ground,” he said.

Emphasising that protection of a child’s education is protecting a nation’s future, Mr. Parvathaneni said that governments bear the primary responsibility to uphold their obligations to protect and promote a child’s rights.

He noted that in India, the Right to Education is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution, guaranteeing free and compulsory education up to the age of 14 years. In order to ensure access to quality education to all, India launched DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) – the national digital platform for school education that has democratised access to quality learning through interactive content and AI-powered tools across multiple languages.

“Our domestic commitment to ensure access to affordable and quality education also shapes our engagement on this issue internationally,” he said, adding that India leveraged digital technology as a vital enabler of access to education, especially in regions and during times with disrupted physical schooling such as during the Covid pandemic.

“Our experience has convinced us that access to digital learning can be the bridge that helps children access education during conflicts,” he said.

Further, he underscored that investment in education for those bearing the heaviest burden of war is an imperative.

“India has made sustained investments in facilitating education for refugees and displaced communities from across our neighbourhood, recognising that continuity of learning is among the most powerful tools for resilience and recovery.”

India has also invested in rebuilding education infrastructure, including the construction of schools and vocational training centres, in different countries, including our neighbourhood, he said.

Published – June 26, 2026 11:16 am IST

New York:

India has strongly condemned the countries that use their veto powers to block evidence-based terrorist listings at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and said the practice is uncalled for and smacks of doublespeak to the council’s commitment in tackling the challenge of terrorism.

“Let us turn to the subsidiary bodies inhabiting a subterranean world with their own custom-made working methods and obscure practices which do not find any legal basis in the charter or any of the council’s resolutions. For instance, while we do get to know of the decisions of these committees on listing, the decisions on rejecting listing requests are not made public,” India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj, said at a session of the United Nations Security Council.

“This is a disguised veto, but an even more impervious one that indeed merits a discussion amongst the wider membership. For genuine evidence-based listing proposals for globally sanctioned terrorists to be blocked without giving any due justification is uncalled for and smacks of doublespeak when it comes to the council’s commitment in tackling the challenge of terrorism,” she added, in what seems like a veiled attack on China.

“…We can no longer hide behind the smokescreen of the Intergovernmental Negotiations by delivering entrenched national positions in a process which has no time frame, and no text….”

– PR in the United Nations Security Council today. pic.twitter.com/39x3J8riW4

— India at UN, NY (@IndiaUNNewYork) March 11, 2024

Earlier last year, China had put a technical hold on the proposal after India and the United States submitted a proposal to the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee to designate Sajid Mir, who is wanted for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which killed 166 people and injured over 300.

China had effectively blocked a proposal to designate Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Sajid Mir as a global terrorist. For a proposal to be adopted, it needs consensus from all the member countries.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Kamboj argued that the selection of chairs of subsidiary bodies and decision-making power must be given through an open process that intends to be transparent.

“The selection of chairs of subsidiary bodies and distribution of pen holderships must be made through a process which is open, which is transparent, which is based on exhaustive consultations and with a more integrated perspective. The consensus of the e ten on chairs of subsidiary bodies, to be assumed by the E-10 themselves, must be absolutely honoured by the P-5,” she said.

“As one of the largest troop-contributing countries, my delegation would like to reiterate that the concerns of the troop and police contributing countries should be taken into consideration for better implementation of peacekeeping mandates. There is a need to review the agenda of the council and remove obsolete and irrelevant items from the agenda of the Security Council,” she added.

India also reiterated its call for UNSC reforms and asked countries that block the revision of giving permanent seats at the forum to contribute to making the council fit for the 21st century.

“As the threats to international peace and security evolve, Mr. President, so must this council. We ask those blocking progress on this vital issue to heed calls for genuine reform and contribute to making this council truly fit for purpose for the 21st century. Thank you,” Kamboj said.

“It is also imperative to note that working methods do not stand in isolation as they have an organic linkage to other clusters, including the relationship with the General Assembly and discussions on the veto. Therefore, unless we address the issue in its entirety, a piecemeal approach would fail to offer a holistic solution,” she said.

“As we discuss the working methods, we also witness an equitable representation-sized hole in the Security Council between P five and e ten. What we, therefore, need is a Security Council that better reflects contemporary realities, and the geographical and developmental diversity of the multipolar world of today, including the voices of the developing countries and unrepresented regions like Africa, Latin America, and the vast majority of Asia and the Pacific. For this, an expansion of the council in both categories of membership is absolutely essential,” she added.

Kamboj said, “As the threats to international peace and security evolve, Mr. President, so must this council. We ask those blocking progress on this vital issue to heed calls for genuine reform and contribute to making this council truly fit for purpose for the 21st century.”

She insisted on the effectiveness of the United Nations in international peace and security and said that the debate on working methods remains extremely relevant.

“As an organ of the United Nations tasked with the maintenance of international peace and security, the debate on working methods remains extremely relevant, especially in the backdrop of Ukraine and Gaza. As such, the question as to how much the Security Council has been able to deliver on peace and security with both feet firmly fixed in the past is a larger question that the member states need to collectively ponder upon in that collective reflection,” she said.

“On the council’s engagement with the wider membership and as mandated by Article 24 of the UN Charter, one of the meaningful ways of doing this would be through a discussion on the report of the Security Council in the General Assembly. However, despite long-standing demands for analytical reportage, these remain just factual markers indicating the number of times the council has met or the total debates that have been conducted,” she added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)