With China presiding over session, India warns UN Security Council of 'vicious cycle of debt traps'

India warned nations across the world to be vigilant towards the dangers posed by unsustainable financing which leads to a vicious cycle of the debt traps, reflecting New Delhi's concern against Beijing's debt trap diplomacy across the world, especially in vulnerable South Asian nations bordering India.

"Peace is elusive and development a distant dream if resource crunch continues to exist. Hence, India in various fora, including in its current G20 presidency has worked towards reforms of International Financial Institutions," Madhu Sudan, Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations said earlier this week during UN Security Council open debate on 'Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Promoting Sustaining Peace through Common Development'.

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Notably, the meet was being held under China’s presidency of the 15-nation UN body for the month of November.

Madhu Sudan said that as the concept paper of the meeting suggests, "we should work on transparent and equitable financing and be vigilant with respect to the dangers of unsustainable financing which leads to the vicious cycle of debt traps."

He further noted that peace is “elusive as in our lived experiences where the UN representing the international community struggled to restrain the vaccine apartheid during Covid or the rising inflation of food, fuel and fertilisers which unjustly affect the Global South. It is reflective enough that the voice of the Global South is lost and forgotten without representation."

'Security is indeed multi-dimensional': India at UN

India has been repeatedly warning the nations to steer clear of the dangers of "hidden agendas" in unsustainable debt, in a reference to China which is accused in the western capitalsof pursuing "debt trap" diplomacy.

“Choosing peace, co-operation and multilateralism is essential for building our collective future free of wars, conflicts, terrorism, space race and the threats from new and emerging technologies amongst others,” Madhu Sudan said.

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India saidthat while a comprehensive vision of international security must take into accountthe interdependence of the UN system's three pillars—peace and security, development, and human rights—it is important to remember that this does not imply that the Security Council should occupy all these functions.

"Security is indeed multi-dimensional, but the Security Council's involvement in every aspect including those mandated to other UN bodies might not be advisable," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)