UNITED NATIONS: The international order is facing multiple challenges to peace and security, India has said, asserting that purely bilateral issues are brought to regional and international forums that diminish the chances for direct and mutual dialogue.
India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu said at a UN Security Council briefing that the parochial policies of certain states and their perceived notion of existential threats have contributed to insecurity in many regions. “Today, the international order is facing multiple challenges to peace and security. The parochial policies of certain states and their perceived notion of existential threats have contributed to insecurity in many regions,” he said. “Purely bilateral issues are being brought to regional and international forums thereby diminishing the chances for direct and mutual dialogue,” he said during a Council briefing on the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Wednesday.
Naidu said that peace and security were essential prerequisites for the growth and development of humanity, and the international community has a collective responsibility towards prevention of conflict and creating conditions for sustaining peace and ensuring security. India believes that bilateral agreements negotiated between parties concerned provide basis for a negotiated and peaceful resolution of disputes, he said. “The commitment to upholding a rules-based international order, underpinned by respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, rule of law, transparency, freedom of navigation in the international seas and peaceful resolution of disputes remains critical and relevant as well,” Naidu said. While noting the ongoing global counter terrorism efforts and contribution of the OSCE, he said it is evident from recent lone wolf attacks in many parts of Europe that terrorists have significantly enhanced their capabilities. “We need to ensure that our collective resolve to fight terrorism is not weakened,” he said.
Naidu told the briefing that the OSCE was among the first regional organisations to strongly condemn the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. He stressed that the OSCE had an important role to play in the continued fight against terrorism and other new and emerging threats. Naidu referred to the eight-point action plan on counter-terrorism proposed by India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in January in an address to the Council. He said the action plan also merits serious consideration of the OSCE. The action-plan included need to summon up political will to combat terrorism, no double standards in the battle against terrorism, and reforming the working methods of the Committees dealing with Sanctions and Counter Terrorism and need to enlist and delist individuals and entities under the UN sanctions regimes objectively.
Naidu noted that challenges confronting the OSCE community come from different sources, including not only potential challenges to sovereignty, but threats to peace from ethnic tensions and violent separatism within States. “The OSCE, as the largest regional security organisation, is also addressing some of the toughest transnational threats that its membership faces, such as weapons proliferation, terrorism, cyber security, migration, environmental damage and drug trafficking,” he said. Naidu added that despite these challenges, the OSCE has “broken new ground” in developing effective tools for conflict prevention, peacebuilding, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation to address these risks and threats to security. He underlined that India supports active engagement between the UN and OSCE based on the Framework for Cooperation and Coordination signed in 1993 and in line with the Charter of the UN.
Naidu added that as Sweden takes on the OSCE Chair, India welcomes Stockholm’s strong focus to further the agenda for women, peace and security during its Chairship.
