India criticises UN Security Council for ignoring 'non-member' states

UNITED NATIONS: India has criticised the UN Security Council for its decision to contract peacekeeping in Africa to regional arrangements, even "before opening the floor to non-members," though the country is the biggest contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions.

"It may be infructuous for us to express our views...if the Council acts before opening the floor to non-members," India's Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi, said at the Council debate on the UN-African Union (AU) partnership in peacekeeping operations here yesterday.

He was referring to the statement adopted by the Council on cooperation between the UN and AU even before India, which has invested heavily in peacekeeping missions in Africa, got a chance to speak on the debate.

Speaking about India's experience in peacekeeping missions, Bishnoi said, "We have considerable experience in this field. We, therefore, feel we are well placed to comment on the subject at hand."

Stressing that the UN cannot disengage with Africa by contracting peacekeeping to regional arrangements, the Ambassador said that the primacy of UN cannot be denied and role of regional organizations like the AU in maintaining peace must be to reinforce rather than to replace UN.

"The UN cannot disengage with the continent by contracting peacekeeping to regional arrangements, whose role must be to reinforce rather than to replace that of the UN. We need to also start worrying if the impartiality of the UN forces is called into question," he added.

A report of the AU-UN panel, headed by the former Italian Prime Minister Romano Pardi, had recommended that the UN fund AU peacekeeping operations for six months and after the approval of the Council and the General Assembly bring the AU missions under UN management within six months.

Bishnoi said that India's recommendation would be for the Council to request Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to draw up a roadmap for implementing the recommendations of the Prodi Panel.

While noting the suggestion that elected African members of the Security Council should be provided with special observer status in the Peace and Security Council of the AU, Bishnoi said it would be beyond the remit of this Council to make any recommendation on the manner in which an AU institution should be structured.

India is the largest overall contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, having sent more than 170,000 Indian troops to 43 of the 69 such operations mandated so far.