bhagat
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NEW DELHI: India will give $250,000 to help build a monument against slavery and remember victims of the slave trade.
Jamaica's envoy to the UN, Raymond Wolfe, said here this week that this one gesture by India would touch hearts in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean, whose ancestors were victims of this scourge. For India, seeking to change the rules of the global high table, UN Security Council (UNSC), a gift like this helps bring many countries around to supporting India's bid for a permanent seat.
As India returns to the UNSC after 20 years, it is determined to push through its bid for a permanent seat. Indian envoy Hardeep Puri observed, "Once we get on, we're not going to get off."
Last week, India brought the UN envoys from cricket-crazy Carribean nations for a long trip -- hobnobbing with the powerful in Delhi and Mumbai, getting a taste of the India growth story as well as Indian hospitality. In April, India has set a bigger task for itself when it hosts a large group of foreign ministers and UN envoys from the least developed countries, a powerful voting bloc in the UN. Among other things, the LDCs may end up issuing a joint document to support India's candidature.
Small island states like Fiji, Papua New Guinea etc were feted in India at the end of 2010. They are a significant voting bloc in the UN. India's high voltage diplomacy will culminate with the India-Africa summit in summer. India is one of the biggest investors in Africa, occupying almost as important a space as China. This self-canvassing is new to India, but foreign office mandarins say they feel quite at home. "This is what we want to do," said one excited official.
They expect that by the end of summer, the UN reform momentum will gather speed. But numbers is not the only game in the UN general assembly.
The Indian campaign for the permanent seat now has five discernible strands. First, canvassing for itself by entertaining waves of diplomats from around the world.
Second, ensure that India adds value to the UN Security Council. This week, Hardeep Puri told the UN to concentrate on humanitarian relief in Haiti rather than interfere in local politics. On Wednesday, India put out a five-point plan to tackle piracy off the Somalian coast. On Africa, on the Middle East, India is raising its voice, where earlier its diplomacy was best practiced by ducking under the radar.
Push the G4. All other members, Japan, Germany and Brazil have also embarked on a similar exercise. But if Germany faces problems with some countries for having yet another European country in the UNSC, Russia is dead opposed to Japan (as is China). In the absence of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, they're technically still at war. Brazil's opponents lie in the Spanish-speaking world.
Next week, the UNGA will start work on a new report that will give a shape to the reform. This will start the world on a new set of talks on the future shape of the UN.
Last, but in many ways the most difficult is Africa. According to the G4 plan, Africa gets two permanent seats, but none of the African countries have decided which two that may be. This may drag the effort, because it's pointless to push the African Union to take a decision.
For UNSC seat, India woos Africa - The Times of India
Jamaica's envoy to the UN, Raymond Wolfe, said here this week that this one gesture by India would touch hearts in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean, whose ancestors were victims of this scourge. For India, seeking to change the rules of the global high table, UN Security Council (UNSC), a gift like this helps bring many countries around to supporting India's bid for a permanent seat.
As India returns to the UNSC after 20 years, it is determined to push through its bid for a permanent seat. Indian envoy Hardeep Puri observed, "Once we get on, we're not going to get off."
Last week, India brought the UN envoys from cricket-crazy Carribean nations for a long trip -- hobnobbing with the powerful in Delhi and Mumbai, getting a taste of the India growth story as well as Indian hospitality. In April, India has set a bigger task for itself when it hosts a large group of foreign ministers and UN envoys from the least developed countries, a powerful voting bloc in the UN. Among other things, the LDCs may end up issuing a joint document to support India's candidature.
Small island states like Fiji, Papua New Guinea etc were feted in India at the end of 2010. They are a significant voting bloc in the UN. India's high voltage diplomacy will culminate with the India-Africa summit in summer. India is one of the biggest investors in Africa, occupying almost as important a space as China. This self-canvassing is new to India, but foreign office mandarins say they feel quite at home. "This is what we want to do," said one excited official.
They expect that by the end of summer, the UN reform momentum will gather speed. But numbers is not the only game in the UN general assembly.
The Indian campaign for the permanent seat now has five discernible strands. First, canvassing for itself by entertaining waves of diplomats from around the world.
Second, ensure that India adds value to the UN Security Council. This week, Hardeep Puri told the UN to concentrate on humanitarian relief in Haiti rather than interfere in local politics. On Wednesday, India put out a five-point plan to tackle piracy off the Somalian coast. On Africa, on the Middle East, India is raising its voice, where earlier its diplomacy was best practiced by ducking under the radar.
Push the G4. All other members, Japan, Germany and Brazil have also embarked on a similar exercise. But if Germany faces problems with some countries for having yet another European country in the UNSC, Russia is dead opposed to Japan (as is China). In the absence of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, they're technically still at war. Brazil's opponents lie in the Spanish-speaking world.
Next week, the UNGA will start work on a new report that will give a shape to the reform. This will start the world on a new set of talks on the future shape of the UN.
Last, but in many ways the most difficult is Africa. According to the G4 plan, Africa gets two permanent seats, but none of the African countries have decided which two that may be. This may drag the effort, because it's pointless to push the African Union to take a decision.
For UNSC seat, India woos Africa - The Times of India
