India needs to build UN reform coalition

US president Barack Obama announced to the world that his country will back India for a permanent seat in a reformed UN Security Council (UNSC). But he had also cautioned that it would not happen any time soon. It seems Indian diplomats and bureaucrats have missed that last point.

Ever since Obama’s announcement, the ministry of external affairs has gone into overdrive to seek support from every other nation, including Russia and China, for a declaration of support for a reformed UNSC soon. So much so that Washington DC was forced to issue a note saying that reforming the UNSC will take time.

India would do well to heed that advice. Reforming the UNSC has been on the cards ever since the Cold War ended and that it took nearly two decades to even get the US to say that India deserved a permanent seat only shows how complicated and slow-moving the process is. Given that any change will meet with lots of resistance — not least from China and Pakistan — it might well be another decade by the time a reformed UNSC is born.

Moreover, reforming the UNSC is not just about giving India a permanent seat. We need to go back to basics: what will the reformed UN do beyond giving representation to under-represented constituencies and recognising changes in the power structure since World War II? What should be the criteria for choosing a new member? Should there be additional members or should some existing permanent members make way? Should the veto power continue to exist? Each of these queries is a landmine of politics, diplomacy, and national pride; none of them will be answered in a hurry.

India would do well to hasten slowly, even though our case is probably the strongest, as The Economist acknowledged in a recent editorial. The best way to reform the UN is to build a broad constituency of support among the big powers and the emerging ones. This will take time, tact and deal-making capabilities. It works best behind-the-scenes.