India's Explanation of Vote

UNSC resolution on small arms

22 December 2021

Mr. President,

I take the floor to submit India’s Explanation of Vote.

2. The threat posed by the illicit transfer and illegal diversion of arms to international peace and security is a matter of serious concern to the entire international community.

3. We thank the Mexican delegation for raising awareness about this issue through the open debate organized during their Presidency on 22 November. During that debate, India had strongly supported the need to address the threat of arms trafficking and their transfer to terrorist groups and the linkages between arms trafficking and terrorism. We had highlighted the threat posed by illicit flow of arms to the safety and security of peacekeepers and called for effective implementation of Council-mandated arms embargoes by the member states.

4. Given that India is one of the largest Troop Contributing Countries to UN Peacekeeping, we have some core concerns on the approach that today’s Resolution prescribes.  It is our considered view that UN peacekeeping operations should not be used as a means to implement the arms embargo. This will not only entail a big addition to their existing mandate, it will also affect their operational efficiency and could possibly even put the peacekeepers at risk. I would like to submit our concerns on following four counts:

One, tasking the peace operations with monitoring and tracing of arms is a major addition to the existing mandate given to UN peacekeepers and will have wider implications on the very nature of peacekeeping operations. This requires extensive consultations with all Troop and Police Contributing countries, which for some reason was not initiated. Moreover, the substantive aspect of this issue should have ideally been dealt in C-34 (Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations).

Second, such an additional tasking to UN peacekeepers, will have an adverse impact on their own safety and security. Potential changes in the movement of peacekeepers to border and other areas and other conflict zones will spread them thin in conflict zones and expose them to much higher risk of direct attacks from arms smugglers. UN Peacekeepers need not be assigned mandates that are primarily with border security forces, which is best left in the hands of the national security forces of the host country.

Third, the implementation of arms embargoes entails a gamut of interrelated and complex set of issues which are best dealt by the specialized UN agencies with the necessary mandates, skillsets, expertise, and resources.

Fourth, and lastly, their core mandated assignment, such as protection of civilians (POC), will also be impacted adversely if they are given an additional assignment over and above their principal mandate, without necessary resources and capabilities.

5. As such, even though we have supported Mexico in their principled pursuit to tackle the small arms menace, since our concerns remain largely unaddressed in the context of UN peacekeeping, we are constrained to abstain on this vote.

I thank you Mr. President.

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