PERSPECTIVE

India as a Non-permanent Member of

the UN Security Council in 2011-12

CHANGAVALLI SIVA RAMA MURTHY

May 2011

n Indias election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for

2011/2012 is an acknowledgement of its growing importance in global governance
and was made possible by the mature support extended by regional rivals such as
Pakistan and China.
n During its UNSC membership India will stick to its traditional foreign policy values
and goals: the non-use of force; respect for the sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity of states; and the peaceful settlement of disputes.
n India will assist the Council in focusing on existing and emerging, non-traditional
threats, such as terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and piracy.
n India has always preferred to be part of the democratic majority helping in the adoption of broadly acceptable decisions and resolutions. In the past, India has not voted
against any resolution, but it has resorted to abstentions only to signal its reservations. Even when it abstained, India had the company of other member countries.
n The presence of India, Brazil, and South Africa in the Council this year may yield meaningful team work on Iran and other issues of shared concern. They could become the
nucleus of a coalition on salient issues, notwithstanding some differences in emphasis
between them on some issues and approaches.

C. S. R. MURTHY | INDIA AS A NON-PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE UNSC IN 2011-2012

Significance of Indias Election to the UNSC

tation for various regions when selecting states to sit on

the Security Council. India did not press for a vote on its
amendment, since the Sponsoring Powers accepted the
suggestion and modified their original proposals.

Indias assumption of a non-permanent members seat

in the UN Security Council in January 2011 to serve a
two-year term has been widely welcomed, for three reasons. First, relative to other candidates (such as Germany and Portugal) India won the seat this time with the
highest number of votes polled in the General Assembly.
Indeed, this impressive electoral popularity was made
possible by the mature support extended by regional rivals such as Pakistan and China. Pakistan voted in Indias
favour setting aside its differences in bilateral relations
on such issues as Kashmir. Equally notable is Chinas
support because of the growing bilateral trade and the
tranquil borders with India. However, one should not
rush from this specific positive development to assume
that these two countries (or others in the region) would
extend ready support to Indias aspiration to permanent
membership in the Council. Of course, from within the
Asian region, India did not have to face any competitor
for the seat, thanks to Kazakhstans gesture of withdrawing its candidature. Second, Indias election is to
be viewed as a well deserved acknowledgement of its
growing importance in terms of global economic and
security governance, especially in view of the fact that
India is the second fastest growing economy in the
world. Third, India has come back to the Security Council
after a long wait of nearly 20 years; the waiting period
represented, in fact, its long wait for an elusive permanent seat in an expanded Security Council.

Previous to the present term, India was elected six times

to serve a two-year period as non-permanent member
of the Security Council. Except for the first time, when
it occupied the seat earmarked for the Commonwealth
group, it held the seat on every other occasion on behalf
of the Asian group. One of those terms 1984-85
coincided with Indias chairmanship of the Nonaligned
Movement. The years it served coincided with testing
times for the Security Council and the UN in general.
Major conflict situations arose during periods in which
India was a member: the Korean War in 195051, the
two Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973, Israels first invasion of Lebanon (1977), and the first Gulf War against
Iraq (1991). On all these occasions, Indias role was that
of a mature and moderate member, helping the Council
to meet the expectations of the international community
in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Charter.

Principles and Pragmatism of Indias

Approach in the UNSC
India will pursue its foreign policy values and goals in the
Security Council, just as it does in other organs of the
United Nations. During the time of its non-permanent
membership of the Security Council, the Indian delegation has traditionally espoused certain fundamental
principles that should govern relations among Member
States. These are the principles of not resorting to use of
force, respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states, and the peaceful settlement of
disputes. The principle of the inadmissibility of territorial
acquisition by force is absolutely fundamental to Indias
approach. It is these principles of non-use of force and
non-intervention in internal affairs which guided India in
the Security Council in responding to various proposals
on the ongoing situation in Libya. While India expressed
its reluctance to resort to enforcement measures such as
the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, it agreed to
join the condemnation of the brutal use of force against
the unarmed anti-regime protesters and supported the
imposition of selected sanctions against Gaddafis ruling
clique, in deference to the views expressed by the accredited representatives of Libya.

Indias Past Track Record in the UNSC

In Indias view, the need for an organ such as the Security
Council, endowed with power matching its responsibilities, is beyond question. As an organ entrusted with the
primary responsibility for the principal purpose of securing world peace, the Council is exceptional, in terms of
its composition, mandate, powers, decision-making processes and relations with other UN organs. At the 1945
San Francisco conference, India showed a good deal
of interest in matters relating to the Security Councils
composition. Of the utmost interest to India at that time
was the basis of election of non-permanent members.
The Indian delegation advocated weightage for factors
such as population, industrial potential, willingness and
ability to contribute to international peace and security,
and past performance, as well as the need for represen-

C. S. R. MURTHY | INDIA AS A NON-PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE UNSC IN 2011-2012

As for the possible regional focus in Indias role in the

Security Council during its current term a number of nuances are worth mentioning here. On the one hand,
Indias stated position is that military action by regional
organisations and arrangements cannot be construed as
a desirable and viable alternative to the universal procedures of the Security Council, especially in terms of enforcement action. That does not mean, however, that India
is insensitive to regional sentiments, especially in Africa.
Quite rightly, India indicated in the February 2011 deliberations that the Council should be guided by the views of
the regional consultative bodies, such as the Arab League,
on the recent political developments in North Africa (particularly Libya) and the Middle East. As for the questions
in the Asian theatre, the concerns about nuclear proliferation in North Korea or Iran, and the Israel-Palestine peace
talks and peacebuilding in Afghanistan are not just regional, but trans-regional in significance. Therefore, India
would like these issues to be approached on the basis of
peaceful and diplomatic engagement rather than through
the counter-productive coercive route.

Sudan, Cote DIvoire), the facilitation of regular, timely

and full consultations with relevant stakeholders, such as
troop contributing countries (TCCs), is an issue in which
India has demonstrated a good deal of interest. This is
understandable, because India has expressed unhappiness that it has remained on the sidelines of Council
peacekeeping decisions, despite the fact that the country
has for decades been among the top five troop contributors to UN mandated peace operations. In other words,
India will press for concrete steps to promote trilateral
cooperation involving the TCCs, the Security Council and
the Secretariat as suggested by ongoing deliberations
on the New Horizons process.

Preference for Consensus Building

As an original member of the UN, India has brought
to bear its vast diplomatic experience whenever it has
served on the Council. Its toolkit of tactics includes the
introduction of draft resolutions with others as co-sponsors, promoting identity of views among fellow nonaligned states, as well as the non-permanent members
serving on the Council, building and joining consensuses
with the rest of the Council Members, and so forth.

Priority Concerns for India at the UNSC

In other words, India is unlikely to raise issues motivated
by narrow, exclusive national interests and prejudices. It
would rather assist the Council in focusing on both existing and emerging threats to collective security. India is
alive to the context of the post-Cold War era, especially in
the climate of insecurity characterised by the growing salience of non-traditional threats, other than external aggression and intervention. Terrorism, proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and piracy
are at the top of the new agenda India would be interested in. It is fitting that India (a country on the frontline of
the struggle against terror perpetrated against innocent
civilians) is now chairing the Counter-Terrorism Committee established by the Council in pursuance of Resolution
1373 (2001). In a general sense, it is these issues, along
with the problem of piracy (witnessed off Somalia), which
will receive attention from India in its present term. It is
probable that when India assumes the Presidency of the
Council in August this year, India will press for a ministerial or summit meeting to take up one of these issues.

It is worth noting in this connection that India has always

preferred to be part of the democratic majority helping in
the adoption of broadly acceptable decisions and resolutions. On the one hand, India went along with 59 per cent
of the resolutions adopted either unanimously or without
a vote during the previous six terms of its non-permanent
membership prior to the current term in the UNSC. Even
with regard to the aggregate of 113 adopted resolutions (41
per cent) which gave rise to division, India cast an affirmative vote on 101 (89 per cent) of them. On no more than a
dozen occasions did it stand aside without joining the concurring majority. To be sure, India has not voted against any
resolution, and has resorted to abstentions only to signal
its reservations. Remarkably, moreover, India was never a
loner as an abstaining country; it always had the company of other member countries, such as China, the former
Soviet Union or fellow non-permanent member countries
on many occasions. The latest such instance is Indias abstention along with Germany, Brazil, China and Russia on
UNSC Resolution 1973 that authorised enforcement of a
no-fly zone and other complementary measures to protect
civilians in Libya in March 2011. In all likelihood, this will continue in Indias latest tenure in the Council during 2011-12.

Alongside participatory and transparent management of

peacekeeping missions deployed in intractable intrastate
conflicts (such as the Democratic Republic of Congo,

C. S. R. MURTHY | INDIA AS A NON-PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE UNSC IN 2011-2012

Possibilities for Working Partnerships

Indias self-perception in 2011 is more robust than ever.
Whether India will make a difference to the deliberations
and outcomes in the UNSC during its current tenure will
depend less on solo heroics than on the effective partnerships and positive consensus it is able to build and
sustain, involving, first, fellow non-permanent members
and then the permanent members. Unlike in the past,
the non-aligned group is not relevant as a framework for
coalescence among non-permanent members. Nevertheless, the presence of India, Brazil and South Africa
in the Council this year may yield meaningful teamwork
on issues such as Iran (although it is not clear how the
United States and some other Western member countries would receive such initiatives) and the linkages between security and development. They could become the
nucleus of a larger coalition on salient issues, notwithstanding some differences in emphasis among them.
At the same time, there are possibilities for cross-cutting
partnerships involving IBSA and Germany or even the
G4 countries (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan) that
could try to take advantage of their membership in the
UNSC and push for a text in the Council supporting fast
tracking of negotiations to enlarge the permanent and
non-permanent categories of the Council membership.
This course of action is admittedly not easy to pursue.
But at the same time, it would be hard to imagine now
that India will choose to go solo by abandoning the G4
negotiating positions and promote its own candidature
at the expense of other co-aspirants. Besides, some (if
not all) existing permanent members could become very
useful partners in taking up and clinching issues of general interest, such as monitoring links between terror
networks and money laundering, preventing non-state
actors from acquiring weapons of mass destruction
or effective coordination of action against piracy as a
threat to maritime security. This is the surer way of shaping the Council as the effective and legitimate kernel of
global security governance, without being reduced to an
extension of US foreign and security policy interests.

About the author

Imprint

Dr Murthy is Professor at the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International
Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His recent
publications include a FES Briefing Paper entitled The UN
Counter-Terrorism Committee (2007) and a GPPi research
paper (co-authored with Claudia Meier) entitled Indias
Growing Involvement in Humanitarian Assistance (2011).
Contact: [email protected]

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UN Security Council in Focus

This publication is part of the series Focus on the UN Security
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