Parvathaneni Harish. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

“India is “unsatisfied” with the pace of progress on Security Council reform,” the country’s envoy at the United Nations (UN) said, noting that there are countries who prefer the status quo and those that oppose expansion in the permanent category “at all costs” as they feel their neighbours may have a chance to become a member.

“The Security Council structure, as it stands today, is a reflection of 1945. It does not reflect today’s realities,” India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said during a conversation here on Tuesday (November 19, 2024.)

Mr. Harish delivered the keynote address on ‘Responding to Key Global Challenges: The India Way’ at an event at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Mr. Harish gave an expansive overview of the “India way” on key global issues ranging from reformed multilateralism, terrorism, demography, India’s digital revolution to the country’s youth, climate change, democracy, healthcare and vaccines.

The event was co-sponsored by the MPA programme in Global Leadership and the International Organisation and U.N. Studies programme (IO/UNS) and attended by students, faculty and policy experts.

He noted that the United Nations does “great work” in the humanitarian field, addressing the humanitarian requirements of hundreds of millions around the world as well as in the development domain — children’s health, public health, and labour through its specialised institutions.

“Yet for the common man on the street, their perception, the lenses through which they view the UN is neither the humanitarian dimension nor the development dimension or the public health dimension. They only look at the inability of the UN to stop conflicts in areas including Ukraine and the Middle East. That is the view they have and that is probably the only yardstick by which they are assessing the efficiency of the UN,” he said during a panel discussion after the keynote address.

Mr. Harish underlined that there is consensus that the UN Security Council should be reformed.

“Yes, it needs reforms. It needs expansion. However, several countries prefer the status quo. Those who are already permanent members do not wish to vacate it. Those who are already permanent members do not wish to give up the veto. Those who feel that their neighbours may have a chance to become a member would oppose expansion in the permanent category at all costs,” he said.

“This is the way nations behave, very much like people, in terms of motivations.” Pakistan is part of the group ‘Uniting for Consensus’ that opposes permanent seats for India and other G4 nations Brazil, Germany and Japan.

Of the five Permanent members of the Council, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. have voiced strong support for India’s bid for a permanent seat in a reformed Council. China has said that Security Council reform is an important part of the reform of the multilateral governance architecture but also pointed to the “practice of a few countries and interest groups who pursue their own selfish and small-circle interests when it comes to Council reform”.

Mr. Harish described the process as being “very difficult” and “complex”. “Yes, we are unsatisfied with the pace of progress in the last 15-16 years and urging the co-chairs of the Inter-Governmental Negotiation process to decisively move forward on this.”

“Is it going to be easy and will it happen tomorrow? Probably not. What should we do? We should keep at it because eventually, things will not remain the same. Nothing remains the same. Change is a natural order of things. It will happen, if not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the day after. We are engaged with this process because we need a multilateral system that works, and is fit for purpose to deal with today’s challenges, problems and also opportunities.”

Mr. Harish emphasised the institutions of multilateralism that we have today are a product of the post Second World War.

“The reality of 1945 is long gone, the institutions remain. They are not fit for purpose for dealing with today’s challenges and opportunities. Yet, they have not been reformed, whether it is the UN, the UN Security Council, international financial institutions, trade bodies, each one of them needs to be made fit for purpose for today’s realities,” he said.

Mr. Harish said that changing the status quo is not easy. “You have a lot of status quo supporters, and you need to build consensus for this. It’s a difficult process which is still ongoing,” he said.

“We are a multipolar world, and we in Asia are clear that a multipolar Asia in a multipolar world is the way ahead,” he said.

Summarising the “India way”, Mr. Harish underlined that the “world is not a zero-sum game”. The ‘India way’ that has emerged is a “proactive India playing on the front foot”, he said using cricket terminology, of “Go ahead and engage, manage difficult partners, cultivate new friends that you have not dealt with before, reassure old friends with whom you have had many years of productive partnership, draw in new stakeholders to all the things that you want to bring about, reach out both to old friends and new partners as you come up with new approaches of dealing with things, extend a hand of friendship and collaboration to all, and finally, expand the outreach, the footprint, and hands of friendship to everybody.”

India didn’t sign letter of support by 104 nations for U.N. Secretary-General after ban by Israel

“No to dogma. Don’t get caught out just because you did something in a particular way” over the last several decades. “Consistency is not a virtue. Yes, to calculated risk-taking, because increasingly, we are dealing with a young population, that wants prosperity as of yesterday, that has great aspirations, that wants innovation and wants transformation. If we don’t change the way we do business, we will not be in a position to meet their aspirations,” he said outlining the ‘India Way’.

“India is a bridge between the developed and the developing world, between the established and the emerging, a friend of the world that believes in participatory institution building without confrontation. We don’t want to impose anything on anyone. Global commons for global good. This is what we work for,” Mr. Harish said.

United Nations:

Assuring Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of India’s commitment to revitalising the global organisation, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish presented his credentials to take over as the Permanent Representative.

Ambassador Harish hit the ground running, making the case before the Security Council soon after the ceremony on Monday for major troop-contributing countries to be actively involved in the decision-making process of peacekeeping operations.

Earlier, prepping for the assignment ahead which takes off with the summit starting on September 22 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation, he had made a round of consultations with several diplomats on cooperating on issues that India shared with their countries.

In posts on X after presenting his credentials, Mr Harish wrote that he and  Mr Guterres “agreed on the need to strengthen and reform multilateralism in both its political and economic dimensions to deal with contemporary challenges and harness new opportunities”.

He added that he assured him of India’s commitment under PM Modi’s “leadership to reformed multilateralism and revitalisation of the UN”.

Mr Harish met with Philemon Yang, who will become the president of the General Assembly this month. He assured the former prime minister of Cameroon of India’s support in his new role.

Coming from his latest assignment as the ambassador to Germany, Mr Harish brings 34 years of diplomatic experience having represented India from Southeast Asia through the Middle East and Europe to the US.

He has special expertise in the issue currently consuming the UN, Gaza, as he served as India’s representative to the Palestine Authority based in Gaza City and had also been deputed to work for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.

His assignments included ambassador to Vietnam and postings in Houston, Riyadh, and Cairo, where he studied Arabic.

Mr Harish started at the UN on Thursday with a floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at his statue on the UN campus.

He followed that with meetings with General Assembly President Dennis Francis and Amandeep Singh Gill, the secretary-general’s envoy on technology.

Francis posted on X that he was “grateful for India’s continued support throughout my presidency”.

The next day, India’s mission said he discussed “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” with Yamazaki Kazuyuki, the permanent representative of Japan, a member of G4, the group that advocates for expanding the Security Council’s permanent membership.

He met Sergio Franca, the permanent representative of another G4 member, Brazil, who took over the presidency of the G20 group from India last year.

Osama Abdelkhalek, the permanent representative of Egypt which has a role in the Gaza peace process, also had a meeting with Harish and they “agreed to work closely in the UN”, according to an Indian Mission post on X.

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

Parvathaneni Harish
| Photo Credit: X/eoiberlin

Parvathaneni Harish, currently India’s ambassador to Germany, has been appointed as the next Ambassador/ Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations at New York, said a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday (August 14).

Mr. Harish is expected to take up the assignment shortly.