India Ends Month-Long UNSC Presidency: A Look At Key Achievements

India’s month-long presidency of the powerful United Nations Security Council (UNSC) ended on Tuesday (August 31) with substantive outcomes on key global issues.

India is currently a non-permanent member (for a two-year term) of the 15-nation UNSC. It assumed the rotating Presidency of the UN body for the month of August.

“As we wind down our Presidency of UN #SecurityCouncil, we thank all colleagues in #UNSC for their tremendous support to make our Presidency a success with many substantive outcomes,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti tweeted on Tuesday.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield congratulated India for a successful presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of August. “Your leadership and resilience saw us through many challenging issues — especially the situation in Afghanistan,” she said.

Here’s a look at the outcomes:

India began its Presidency with a high-level signature event on maritime security presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tirumurti described it as “path-breaking” in many ways since this was the first time the Prime Minister of India chaired the Security Council.

The event was the first time when there was a comprehensive debate on the holistic concept of maritime security. There was also a presidential statement on maritime security which was also the first such statement on the concept.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar chaired the two other signature events – on Peacekeeping and Technology on August 18 and the briefing on Islamic State on August 19.

India also exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UN in support of the ‘Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping’ initiative and to UN C4ISR Academy.

For the first time, the Security Council held an open debate focused exclusively on how technology can aid in peacekeeping and for the first time, it adopted a presidential statement on the topic of technology and peacekeeping, said Tirumurti.

He added that for the first time, India drafted a resolution on peacekeeping focused on ensuring accountability for crimes against peacekeepers. The resolution was sponsored by 80 member states, including all 15 members of the UNSC.

India’s presidency of the UNSC ended with the first resolution being adopted by the Council on the situation in Afghanistan following the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban.

Under India’s presidency, the UNSC successfully steered the discussions on various peace and security issues that are on its agenda, including Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, and the Middle East Peace Process.