India helping in UN Development Agenda through own targets

NEW YORK: India is walking the talk in its efforts to contribute to the success of the ambitious post-2015 Development Agenda through the national targets to eradicate poverty and provide access to basic sanitation and electricity to all, the country's top diplomat at the UN said.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asoke Mukerji stressed that India's diplomatic activity is directly aligned with the country's primary goal of accelerating national economic development, the main focus of which is the eradication of poverty and generation of employment.

At a seminar at the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies on 'The Multilateral Dimensions of India's Foreign Policy Since May 2014', Mukerji noted that the setting of national targets by India in many of the areas covered by the sustainable development goals indicates its seriousness of purpose in walking the talk to contribute to the global success of the post-2015 Development Agenda.

In his address to the UN General Assembly last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned the three sustainable development goals of access to basic sanitation, drinking water and to electricity.

In each of these three areas, India has announced its own national goals, including the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' that seeks to reach the targets on basic sanitation and clean water by the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in October 2019.

Further, India has to generate USD 640 billion to provide for an urban population of over 500 million people, reflecting the urban development infrastructure funding requirements between 2015 and 2031.

In this context, Mukerji stressed that the imperative for the country's multilateral foreign policy objectives to focus on creating a conducive external environment for its aspirations and needs could not be more emphatic.

For India, the achievement of its national goals would profoundly accelerate the implementation of the post-2015 Development Agenda, given the country's central role in global poverty eradication agendas.

The acceleration would further lead to a positive effect on the availability of financial and technological resources for the implementation of other international developmental targets.

The Indian envoy described 2015 as a watershed year for India's multilateral diplomacy since designing the outcomes of different processes of negotiations under the framework of the United Nations will enable India to effectively transform itself, and, in the process, transform the world.

Mukerji pointed out that the five themes identified by the BJP at its recent National Executive Meeting in Bengaluru reflect the new pillars of India's foreign policy.

The concepts of Samman (dignity and honour), Samriddhi (shared prosperity), Suraksha (regional and global security), Sanskriti (cultural) and Sabhyata (civilizational) linkages find resonance in the Charter and working of the United Nations, he said.
As the international community joins forces to put in place an ambitious post-2015 Development Agenda, the Indian envoy noted that the broad areas for India's engagement will be the urgent need to make the multilateral system more effective and responsive for maintaining international peace and security and the renewal of the values underlying the UN Charter to sustain an interconnected multilateral system.

On the issue of international peace and security, Mukerji pointed out the UN Security Council has failed in its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security, underscoring the need to reform the organ to make it more capable, representative and accountable.

The Indian envoy noted that given the huge impact that international peace and security has on its own development agenda, India stands ready to assume the responsibilities as a permanent member of a reformed Security Council.