The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Manmohan Singh's pitch at the United Nations

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Monday, Sep 13, 2004

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Manmohan Singh's pitch at the United Nations

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 12. In an unprecedented meeting next week on the margins of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, will join the leaders of Brazil, Japan and Germany to make a strong pitch for reforming the world body.

All four nations are candidates for the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and have begun to endorse each other's case to be part of the global decision-making on war and peace.

At their first-ever joint session, the four nations are expected to focus on the imperatives of making the U.N. more effective and its leading arm, the Security Council, reflect the global power distribution in the 21st century.

Dr. Singh's talks with the Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, the Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, and the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, mark an important turning point in the extended debate on U.N. reform.

This meeting of the four aspiring powers is expected to underline the urgency of lending a representative character to the UNSC. All four have strong credentials as well as wide-ranging support to have a permanent seat.

Equally important, it is a step forward — in what Dr. Singh had called in his press conference a few days ago an "essay in persuasion" — in getting the international community to accept India's strong case to be part of the global security management.

High-level panel

The intensified effort by the four nations comes amid a growing dissatisfaction with the way the U.N. was left standing aside when the Bush Administration invaded Iraq without an international mandate.

While the U.S. has reserved the right to intervene unilaterally to protect its strategic interests, the Europeans, in the name of multilateralism, are pressing relentlessly for a "supra-national" U.N. with a "right to intervene" in the internal affairs of other states.

A high-level panel appointed last year by the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to assess the new threats and challenges facing the organisation is discussing many of these issues. The report of the panel is expected to be out in December and could form the basis for a renewed debate on U.N. reforms.

China's veto

In addressing the UNGA, Dr. Singh will have an opportunity to shape the great debate on the future of the U.N. and multilateralism.

Even as India and Japan extend mutual support, they keep a wary eye on the attitude of China, which could veto any restructuring of the U.N. system.

China has not opposed U.N. reforms. It has also underlined the importance of bringing more "developing countries" into the UNSC. This open-ended position avoids a commitment either in favour or against the candidature of Japan and India.

Meanwhile, the Chinese media reflects the deep reservations in Beijing about Japan's global ambitions.

In an article last week, China Daily declared that Beijing must boldly say "No" to Japan's entry into the UNSC. Another writer in People's Daily suggested that Japan, India, Germany and Brazil "cannot go far without adequate patience."

U.S. support

While the U.S. has broadly supported Japan's case, the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, last month declared that Japan must consider revising its peace constitution that abjures the use of force if it wants to play an active role in international security affairs.

Japan is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Beijing opposes Tokyo's membership of the UNSC by reviving the memories of Japanese militarism. Washington demands that Japan shed its current military inhibitions if it wants to enter the UNSC.

Mr. Koizumi has apparently decided for the moment to stake its claim — for the first time at the UNGA — for the permanent membership without any "promise" or "threat" to change its peace constitution.

Nuclear burden

For India, too, American support would be crucial in gaining a permanent seat. In his much-anticipated book about India, the former Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, sums up the conversation on the subject between the former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, and the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi in March 2000.

Mr. Talbott writes: "... Vajpayee appealed for Clinton's support in making India a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Clinton replied that there were other major regional powers with similar aspirations, such as Brazil— which he added, had the done the right thing in not going nuclear".

The linkage between India's nuclear policy and a permanent seat at the UNSC, set out by Mr. Clinton in 2000 remains unchanged in the pronouncements of the Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry.

The Bush Administration has been less critical of India's nuclear weapons programme but has not extended support to India's UNSC claims.

When he meets the U.S. President, George W. Bush, in New York, Dr. Singh will have an opportunity to find out if there is an evolution in American thinking.

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