UNSC Open Debate on Peacebuilding and sustaining peace: Integrating effective resilience building in peace operations for sustainable peace

[Thursday, 03 November 2022, 10:00 A.M]

Statement delivered by Foreign Secretary of India 

Thank you, Madam President,

Let me begin by conveying my best wishes and greetings to you on Ghana’s Presidency of the Security Council for this month. We also thank you for organizing today’s Open Debate on an extremely important issue of peacebuilding and sustaining peace, especially in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. We hope that your initiative today will help us all better understand the linkages between peacekeeping and peacebuilding and the role of related stakeholders. 

2.    I would also like to thank the Secretary-General H.E. Mr. António Guterres for his insights as also the other briefers for their useful and important briefing.

3.      UN Peacekeeping operations commenced seven decades ago as relatively simple, largely unidimensional missions designed to keep the peace and to facilitate political processes aimed at finding lasting solutions to conflicts. This context has changed profoundly over the years. Today, both political and security environment as also the nature of conflict have undergone paradigm shifts. 

4.    It has become more complex, uncertain, volatile, and ambiguous. Conflicts are far more fragmented - with the participation of non-state actors, including armed militias, terrorists, and organized criminal groups - in many instances with political support. Technological advances have also contributed to the changing nature of such conflict in many ways. 

5.        Terrorist and radical extremist groups have unprecedented access to various technological tools to incite, do propaganda, and undertake recruitment as well as for the purchase of weapons and funding of illegal money transfers. Conflict theaters are often characterized by breakdown in the rule of law, absence of effective state institutions, proliferation of illicit economic activities, and illegal exploitation of natural resources. These factors are also manipulated by terrorists and radical groups to serve their nefarious objectives.

6.    In such a complex setting, UN Peace Operations are often burdened with objectives that go beyond traditional mandate of peacekeeping. UN Peace Operations now handle multidimensional tasks, that include capacity building of the host governments in the security sector, humanitarian assistance, monitoring of human rights violations, and ensuring inclusive participation of women and marginalized sections in the political processes. This ever expanding basket of responsibilities for many UN Peacekeeping Missions often ignores the underlying causes of conflict and insecurity. 

7.    The need of the hour therefore is of a holistic approach; coordinated action; and a clear strategy that addresses the challenges to peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding. In this context, let me offer following submissions for this Council’s consideration: 

i)    One, in contemporary conflicts, solutions often lie in the political and social domains, and not just the security. As such, peace operations can create conditions for political and social processes to take hold, but not replace them. 

ii)    Second, we feel that Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding are mutually exclusive. Attempts to extend the role of peacekeeping missions to peacebuilding tasks would strengthen neither indeed weaken both. The military component of peacekeeping can only play an enabling role but cannot, on its own, bring about peacebuilding. A realistic assessment in this regard is the need of the hour. 

iii).  Third,   when it pertains to Africa, solutions anchored in African regional organizations are given a priority and is a good road ahead for resolution of many contemporary armed conflicts. 

iv).     Fourth, India recognizes the primacy of national Governments and authorities in identifying and driving priorities, strategies, and activities for sustaining peace. What is needed is to work closely with Member States - in line with their national requirement and needs, rather than advocate prescriptions and solutions from outside.  

v).      Fifth, as the world’s largest democracy, we are convinced that representative and inclusive governance structures will help stabilize peace, safeguard fundamental rights, protect rule of law, and make governance representative, transparent, responsive and people centric. We need to encourage nurturing such governance structures in countries in conflict settings. This also requires giving them both the time and space they need to deliver efficiently. 

vi).    Sixth, gender sensitivity and inclusivity in governance and security sector strengthens nation building. Similarly, creating an environment that provides opportunities for youth to grow out of conflict cannot be over stressed.   

vii).      Seventh, there is an urgent need for predictable and sustainable financing for peace building efforts to be more effective. Inadequate financing for peace building activities continues to remain a stumbling block. 

viii).     Last, but not the least, the threat posed by terrorism, as also highlighted in Presidency’s concept note for this debate, needs a unified voice from the international community. We should strengthen capabilities of the host States’ security forces; join hands in preventing the terrorist forces from gaining access to financial resources and must collectively call out those who provide safe havens to terrorists, also those, who stand with them and come to their defence including in the UNSC Sanction Regimes. 

Mr. President,

8.    In each of these areas that we have submitted today, India has made significant contributions: We have been a bridge-builder and facilitator of consensus on many of the contentious files that this Council has dealt with in the last two years. We have strongly advocated for keeping the peacekeeping mandates objective, well defined and focused. Indian peacekeepers – nearly 5800 military and police personnel – are today deployed in 9 out of 12 active UN peacekeeping missions. We have also been an active member of the Peace Building Commission (PBC) since its inception. 

9.    We have always played a constructive and significant role in the context of peacebuilding through our extensive development partnership with countries in the Global South, including in Africa. The India-UN Development Partnership Fund which was established in 2017 has grown in a short span of last 5 years, to a portfolio of 66 development projects in partnership with 51 developing countries, including 17 member states from  Africa.

10.    In conclusion, Madam President, let me reiterate that India’s contribution to UN Peacekeeping Missions and our partnership with Africa is based on building instruments of empowerment that would enable Africa to find African solutions to African challenges. India has committed concessional loans of over US$ 12 billion to various projects in Africa since 2015. India will continue to be a force multiplier for all peace building efforts, particularly for our brothers in Africa.  I thank Ghana for its leadership on this subject.

11.    I thank you, Madam, President.

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