General Assembly Security Council
UNSC Open Debate “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Promoting Sustaining Peace through Common Development”
20 November 2023
 
India Statement by
R. Madhu Sudan, Counsellor
Mr President,
Thank you for convening this debate.

Maintaining international peace and security is one of the key mandates of the UN Security Council. My delegation believes that maintaining peace is weighty, nuanced and multidimensional and is not just linked to “common development.”

Our leaders met recently to assess global progress on the SDGs and concurred that urgent measures are necessary to reverse the concerning trend of faltering on these goals. My delegation reiterates that we do not lose focus by diluting or cherry picking, in name or substance, from Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

Development is not the sine qua non for peace or vice versa, and it is this knowledge that made the international community to come together to articulate and interlink all 17 SDGs in 2015. Hence we need to ensure the indivisibility of the Sustainable Development Goals – thus working towards all 17 SDGs in unison.

Peace is elusive and development a distant dream if resource crunch continues to exist. Hence, India in various fora, including in its current G20 presidency has worked towards reforms of International Financial Institutions. As the concept paper suggests, we should work on transparent and equitable financing and be vigilant with respect to the dangers of unsustainable financing which leads to the vicious cycle of debt traps.

Similarly, peace is elusive as in our lived experiences where the UN representing the international community struggled to restraint the vaccine apartheid during Covid or the rising inflation of food, fuel and fertilizers which unjustly affect the Global South. It is reflective enough that without representation the voice of the Global South is lost and forgotten.

SDG 16 particularly calls for peace and in the same breath calls for “effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” India believes that a UN befitting the aspirations and needs of the 21st century is only possible through a sustained, reformed multilateralism especially through expansion of both categories of membership of the Security Council. Choosing peace, co-operation and multilateralism is essential for building our collective future free of wars, conflicts, terrorism, space race and the threats from new and emerging technologies amongst others.

To sum up, while a comprehensive vision of international security must encompass the interdependence of the UN system's three pillars—peace and security, development, and human rights—it is important to remember that this does not imply that the Security Council should assume all these functions. Security is indeed multi-dimensional, but the Security Council's involvement in every aspect including those mandated to other UN bodies might not be advisable.

Mr. President,

I will take not more than a few seconds to dismiss the unwarranted and habitual remarks made by a Permanent Representative earlier against my country and I will not dignify them with a response here.

I thank you, Mr. President