UNGA veto resolution: India expresses concern over 'take it or leave it' initiative

India expressed "serious concern" after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution through consensus to convene whenever a veto is cast by a permanent member of the UN Security Council(UNSC).

UN permanent members US, UK, France, China and Russia have the power to veto UNSC resolutions. According to the new resolution, any veto would henceforth "trigger a General Assembly meetingwhere all UN members can scrutinise and comment on the veto."

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India's deputy permanent representative to the UN ambassador R Ravindra said that India "regrets" the "lack of inclusivity" in the way the resolution was forwarded while adding: "We have serious concerns about such 'take it or leave it' initiatives which do not make a genuine effort to take into account the perspectives and concerns of the wider membership."

Liechtenstein’s UN ambassador Christian Wenaweser had introduced the draft which was in the works for over two years as the ambassador added that was "an expression of our commitment to multilateralism, with this organisation and its principal organs at the forefront.”

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India's UN ambassador R Ravindra while expressing serious concern, said: "By bringing veto to the UNGA as a standalone issue on which the remaining membership has no de facto say and by implying that this issue needs to be addressed first, above all other substantive issues of UNSC reform, is giving disproportionate importance to one issue over all others,"

"This flawed approach is, therefore, an aberration," Ravindra asserted.

India's representative said the "only way to begin to remedy what ails the Security Council" was to make it "more representative, credible and legitimate" and include "more underrepresented voices" including from developing countries and Africa.

India called it a "piecemeal initiative" which ignored the "root cause of the problem".

"We, therefore, hope that other piecemeal efforts focusing on aspects of category of membership and working methods of the Council would be treated without any double standards and with a similar yardstick in future," India's representative to the UN said.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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