The United Nations has six principal organs and the Security Council is one of them.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) works to ensure international peace and security. The 15 member body has 5 permanent members who also hold the veto power. The rest of them are non-permanent members, elected for 2 years each.
Amongst the 10 non-permanent members, 5 are elected every year. It is in this election that India has won a non-permanent membership to the UNSC, from the Asia-Pacific Group, that too unanimously.
What surprised many was the fact that even Pakistan and China voted for India. Here are a few possible reasons behind it.
Pakistan
- Pakistan’s economy is already crumbling. As of now, it is surviving on bailout packages from practically any source it finds. Pakistan needs to show that it is a cooperative neighbor as it is a ground of receiving foreign loans and bailouts from international institutions.
- Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental organization that aims to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.
Pakistan escaped being placed on the blacklist with a narrow margin, barely a month ago. It was placed in its grey list in 2018 after being accused of having close associations with terrorist organizations, terrorist financing, and money laundering.
According to ‘The Dawn’, Pakistan’s premiere newspaper, being on the grey list is causing an estimated loss of $10 billion/year. This is hampering the country’s prospects of foreign investments and bailout packages.
A country with an ailing economy cannot afford to be on bad terms with a country as influential as India.
It now needs to be in India’s good books. A few months back Wing Commander Abhinandan was safely returned for the same reason.
- Calls of South Asian integration are ripe for quite some years now. Given that Pakistan wants to be seen in good light, more than ever; it needs to cooperate with India.
Also Read: Why Is Pakistan So Poor After All?
China
- The world is watching the escalation of a trade war between China and the USA. This will hurt China as it is primarily an export-oriented country. To fill the vacuum that the USA may create, China is looking up to India. Also, India is an important market for Chinese goods. So pleasing India is in the interest of China.
- India is not on board with China’s highly ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has been persuading India to participate in BRI, but in vain. Even China’s agreement on labeling Masood Azhar as a terrorist a couple of months ago was seen as an extension of this perusal.
- India and China share several platforms like:
- BRICS (association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa),
- SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance),
- G20 (an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union), amongst others.
So the two need to show some coherence.
A unanimous win is undoubtedly a diplomatic win for India. It shows how India is becoming a global power with great influence. China and Pakistan, now need India on their side, for their vested interests.
The fact that the two countries voted for India, albeit for economic or political interests, shows how tall India’s stature has become.
Image Credits: Google Images
Source: Indian Express, Wikipedia, India Today
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