| MRUDU NAIK Wednesday, August 04, 2010 6:49:57 AM Oman Time |
This commitment, he hinted, continues despite the changed role of the UN. He pointed out that there is an increasing suspicion that the UN’s relevance has diminished with some of the major powers of the world tending to sidestep it.
A former member of the Indian Foreign Service, T. P. Sreenivasan was India’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vienna and governor for India, at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. Sreenivasan is presently the Director General of the Kerala International Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He is also the executive director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 2020 Project.
Sreenivasan talked on India’s approach to the United Nations and how India has influenced the global body. Stating that India gives to the UN more than it seeks from it, he explained, “We are not a small or an improvised country. We don’t qualify to get the humanitarian benefits the small countries get nor are we powerful enough to use the United Nations as an instrument of policy like the major powers do, yet we give it due respect.”
He emphasised the point that regardless of “some bees in India’s bonnet” its commitment to the UN is absolute.
“We have always made contributions to its various bodies. We have sent troops to all peace-keeping operations wherever required. We have been prompt in paying our dues. Besides, we always send some of our best diplomats to the UN to serve in its secretariat,” said Sreenivasan, who is also the author of two books, Words, Words, Words - Adventures in Diplomacy and Encounters.
Talking of peace-keeping operations, he said, “India has participated in them with a sense that it is part of Indian Army’s responsibility.
But he also informed that India has always insisted that no peace-keeping troops should be kept without the consent on all parties in those countries. Sreenivasan informed that India has contributed very significantly to the thinking of United Nations. “Many of the treaties have drafted by Indian diplomats,” he said.
The former UN ambassador said that India was the first country to go to the UN with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to ensure that nuclear weapons were controlled. “Of course in the end what happened was it divided the world into two camps and India could not accept the terms (so it had to stay out of it). But India has never tried to subvert NPT,” he said.
Nuclear treaty
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was an Indian idea (Indian Ambassador Anil Wadhwa personally negotiated it), he said and added, “We had to keep out of this idea too.” India implements all treaties it signs but where there is a problem it waits, he said, adding, “We are dedicated in following the negotiations, contributing to it and at the same time implementing it.”
Talking of India’s contribution to UN he pointed that one of India’s major contribution has been that of decolonisation.
“It was India which inspired the decolonisation resolution of the United Nations after it won its fight for independence. If UN has 192 member countries from the 52 it had it is not only division of some countries but also because of decolonisation,” he said.
“India championed it to such an extent that there was a suspicion that India was anti-West,” he pointed.
He also informed that India was the first country to raise the question of apartheid in the United Nations. “At that point many said India had no business to interfere in the matters of another country but the historical fact is India had the courage to say so,” he said.
Sreenivasan also said that India has been saying for 20 years now that terrorism is a danger to the world. “But unfortunately rest of the world thought this was an anti-Pakistan stance of India and nobody believed us. In 1995 we presented a comprehensive draft but it was not implemented. Today, the world realises the ill effects of terrorism. Probably if they had given some thought to it earlier, 9/11 would not have taken place,” he said.
He also pointed that India was the only country which presented UN a time bound action plan for total nuclear disarmament.
The Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan insisted that the world should rid of nuclear weapons. “So if at all there is a world without nuclear weapons in future India can take some credit for it,” he said.
There is an urgent need for reforms in the United Nations, he said. Referring to the membership issue to the Security Council, he said, “Nobody knew when the G8 became G20. It was a natural consequence. When the economic crisis struck the world and when the eight countries released they cannot determine for the world the others were included. So if reforms happen in the UN it might happen due to sheer pressure of conscience.” He said an ideal UN is the one that identifies common interests convert them into common views and shape them into programmes of cooperation. “United Nations should work for the common good of the world. UN should focus on what unites the world and not what divides it,” he said.
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