On January 1, 2025, Pakistan enters the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as an elected non-permanent member for a two-year term — its eighth.
Pakistan’s entry is significant in that, effectively, half of the 10 elected members of UNSC will be from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Those elected for 2025-26 were Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia. They will replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland as their terms end on December 31. The new members will join Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia, who are existing non-permanent members.
Afghanistan will be a natural focus with Pakistan sure to use its Council stint to repair its frosty relations with the Taliban. In this, it has Russia and China to readily assist it in the diplomatic rehabilitation of the Taliban. With the OIC countries, one hopes that the Council gets all the support it needs for a ceasefire in Gaza to salvage from the rubble whatever is left of the Palestinian cause and stabilise the region. Peacekeeping is another of Pakistan’s stated priorities given its role as a major troop contributing country for UN peacekeeping. However, Pakistan’s default mode will be to focus on India.
What India should expect
India-Pakistan relations are still strained. Even if one assumes that some backchannels are busy working the lines, it is a given that enhanced bilateral cooperation does not necessarily result in enhanced multilateral cooperation, especially in the UN. This is true not just of Pakistan but also of countries India considers as “close friends”, even in the Global South. For example, some OIC countries with which India has very close bilateral relations, line up behind Pakistani drafts in the UN which have anti-India language. They even argue — ingeniously — that the offensive language is not aimed at India. Fortunately, there is help usually from unexpected friends in such groups, enabling India to tide over the issues successfully.
To state the obvious, India should be prepared for Pakistan’s anti-India initiatives in the UNSC. There was a brief period in 2012 when there was some synergy between the Missions of both countries in the UN when both nations were in the Council, but that was an aberration. Pakistan is back to its multilateral default mode of being anti-India. And in this, it now has a more assertive “iron brother” in China offering it an “all-weather friendship”. Pakistan’s first stated priority is to “combat terrorism”, which it hopes will absolve it of the tag of “terrorist state”. It will also try — as it always does — to slip that tag onto India. The list of Pakistan-based and Pakistani terrorist organisations associated with the ISIL (Daesh) and al-Qaeda under UNSC Resolution 1267 mandated sanctions, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, is long and instructive. In retaliation, Pakistan has presented several “dossiers” to the UN Secretary General, that have fancy claims of Indian terrorist attacks on Pakistan — anything to keep the anti-India pot boiling.
After its stint in the UNSC in 2021-22, India’s proposal (with the United States as co-signatory) to list Pakistani terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki, deputy leader of the LeT, under the 1267 sanctions regime was approved by the UNSC — including of course by China — making this the first listing (with India as a proposer) for terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir. It was a blow to Pakistan, which it must be waiting to avenge.
However, even proposals under 1267 sanctions are given a religious colour by Pakistan. It made desperate attempts, with trumped up charges, to list four Indian Hindus as terrorists, with the intention of getting at least one Hindu listed. The Council rejected every one of Pakistan’s requests — not once but twice — thanks to the U.S. and other western countries. Member-states have seen through Pakistan’s game.
On Kashmir
Its next, and most obvious, stated priority will be Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Pakistan pushed for discussions on J&K in the Council through its “friends” when India abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution. Two closed “consultations” were held in the UNSC, with China acting as the cat’s-paw. But nothing happened. At least four of the five permanent members (P-5) have little appetite for this issue. When a Pakistani journalist in New York asked this writer — when India entered the UNSC in January 2021 — about the “unfinished” business of Article 370, the reply he got was this: that the only “unfinished” business was the return of Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) to India.
With elections having been conducted and a popular- government in place in J&K, Pakistan would find it hard to make an issue. China, which, incidentally, occupies a part of PoK after Pakistan ceded it to them, will only be too happy to keep the pot boiling. The Pakistani Ambassador to the UN made a case in the media on how the recent decision by the International Court of Justice decision on Palestine applies to J&K. One cannot stop Pakistan from trying to do what it wants as its presence in the UNSC will give it the lever to call for discussions on J&K. India is aware that the P-5 usually does not like to prevent discussions, but decides whether it should be open or closed and whether there should be an outcome.
The use of Islamophobia
Pakistan has used Islamophobia as a weapon to dilute the fight against terrorism and, going by its recent attempts, to target India. When the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GTS) was discussed in 2021, and again in 2023, Pakistan, supported by the OIC, sought to introduce Islamophobia as a ‘justification’ for terrorism. India stood alone and had the reference removed. But when India left the Council at the end of 2022, the United Arab Emirates and others inserted, inter alia, Islamophobia into the UNSC Presidential statement for the first time in February 2023. In March 2024, the U.S., China and Russia voted in the UN General Assembly in support of an OIC resolution to appoint a UN Special Envoy for Combatting Islamophobia. With the right wing on the rise in the West, one has not heard the last on this subject in the Council with the OIC countries.
Early this year, Pakistan raised the issue of the bilateral India-Pakistan Indus Waters Treaty in the Council, which is a purely bilateral agreement with its mechanism to resolve disputes. This is a misuse of the UNSC with the only benefit of catering to a domestic audience.
During its stint between 2021-22, India played a robust and positive role in strengthening international peace and security. While many UNSC members misuse “Arria formula” meetings (a dispensation where any UNSC member can circumvent the Council and hold informal meetings on any issue), India avoided doing this and stuck to its priorities in the Council. Pakistan will have no such compunctions.
It is unfortunate that Pakistan ignores the many multilateral synergies between India and Pakistan to work together on UN issues. Both countries have similar interests: in UN peacekeeping, as they are large troop-contributing countries; in combating climate change, as they face severe climate change-induced floods and natural disasters; in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2030; in focusing on the debt burden of the Global South; or in reforming multilateral financial institutions. Sometimes even functional contacts with Indian diplomats are frowned upon by its Mission.
Pakistan’s internal political churning, economic collapse and misplaced priorities have prevented it from strengthening multilateralism and the UN in a world wrecked by conflicts. While its term will be high on rhetoric against India, it is difficult to see how UN member-states will be persuaded to play its game.
T.S. Tirumurti was Permanent Representative/Ambassador of India to the United Nations, New York (2021-22) and President of United Nations Security Council for August 2021
Published – December 13, 2024 12:16 am IST
