Shringla in New York as India set to assume UNSC Presidency for month

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 14

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla is in New York for consultations ahead of India assuming the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the month of August.

The president decides the agenda for the month, coordinates important meetings and other related issues, and is an influential position.

India will take the chair at a time when the Covid crisis is the international community’s topmost concern. India will also be pursuing the goal of zero tolerance to terrorism under the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) which it has been pushing unsuccessfully since 1996.

India will be in a particularly sweet spot because Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid will be the President of the UN General Assembly, though his term begins in September. This aspect was noted in a phone call by PM Narendra Modi to Maldives President Ibrahim Soli on Wednesday.

Incidentally, it was Shringla who visited Male in November last year to announce India’s backing to the Maldivian candidate. Maldives has since repaid the favour with Shahid appointing India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, K Nagaraj Naidu, as his Chef de Cabinet.

India is a non-permanent member of the UNSC for two years from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022.

As the UNSC President, India will have a number of signature events, including on UN peacekeeping. India is expected to launch a mobile tech platform of UN Peacekeepers UNITE AWARE during its presidency.

Each of the 15 UNSC members gets to be the President of the body for one month. India’s envoy to UN TS Tirumurti will be representing India at the council. India will again become the president of UNSC in December 2022, the last month of its two-year term in UNSC.