Pratik Mathur, Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to UN on Wednesday reiterated India's stand that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.
"No amount of misinformation, rhetoric and propaganda from any country can deny this fact," he asserted while addressing 'UNGA Plenary: Use of the veto'.
"We meet today to acknowledge that a year has passed since the adoption of the ‘veto initiative’ by this august Assembly. India’s position on veto has been consistent and clear. UNGA had unanimously agreed in 2008 that all five aspects of UNSC reform, including on the question of veto would be decided in a comprehensive manner and therefore no single cluster could be addressed in isolation," he added.
India and several African and Asian countries have been insisting UN for veto reform for years.
What is Veto in UN?
The Security Council of the United Nations has five permanent members—the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom—collectively known as the P5. Any member of these 5 countries can veto a resolution passed by the UN. However, the Security Council elects 10 members, which serve two-year in the council but they are not afforded veto power.
India's stand on veto
The veto resolution, though adopted by consensus, unfortunately, reflected a piece meal approach to UNSC reform, thereby highlighting one aspect, ignoring root cause of the problem, said Mathur.
"The privilege of using veto has been vested to only five member states...It goes against the concept of sovereign equality of states & only perpetuates the mindset of Second World War, to the victor belongs the spoils," he added.
Either all nations are treated equally in context of voting rights or else the new permanent members must also be given the veto. Extension of veto to new members, in our view, will have no adverse impact on the effectiveness of an enlarged Council, he added.
"We meet today to acknowledge that a year has passed since the adoption of the ‘veto initiative’ by this august Assembly. India’s position on veto has been consistent and clear," Mathur said.
Moreover, the exercise of veto is driven by political considerations, not by moral obligations. As long as it exists, the member state or member states, who can exercise the veto, will do so, irrespective of the moral pressure, as we have seen in the recent past, he added.
"Therefore, we need to address all five aspects of UNSC reform, including the question of veto, in a comprehensive manner, through clearly defined timelines, in the IGN process. India is committed to support any initiative that genuinely furthers the objective of achieving meaningful and comprehensive reform of the key elements of the global multilateral architecture," he added.
(With ani input)
