LONDON, CWBN_ Commonwealth Business News (CWBN) today launched a global campaign to secure India, the world’s second most populous nation, a Permanent Seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to give it parity with the present five Permanent Members – United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China.
India has long sought Permanent Membership to the select and powerful veto-wielding club of the UNSC, and has a legitimate claim since it has the world’s fifth largest economy and is the biggest democracy in the world by far. Its population of 1.35 billion is second globally only to China’s 1.4 billion, which it is expected to overtake in 2024.
The Security Council has had Permanent Members since its inception in 1945, constituted by the victors of the Second World War. So far it has ignored the fact that a million Indian, now Bangladeshi and Pakistani, soldiers contributed to that victory, with 87,000 dead and 200,000 casualties, in battles across the world in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, the North African desert, Burma, Singapore and Malaya.
There has been growing support for India’s claim to this special status and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has publicly called for the inclusion of India as a Permanent Member of the UNSC.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his recent address to the UN General Assembly said: “In the last five years, India has worked towards strengthening its centuries old great tradition of fraternity among nations and welfare of the world, which is indeed in line with the key objectives of the United Nations… The issues that India raises, the kind of new global platforms that India has come forward to build, seek collective efforts to address serious global challenges and issues… In this era, we will have to give new direction to multilateralism, and to the United Nations”.
The Security Council is arguably the world’s most powerful body and controls the activities of the 193-nation world governing body. The UNSC’s membership includes the Permanent Members with have powers to veto any resolution, plus 10 other members whose membership rotates every two years.
CWBN has assembled a global panel of experts on international governance and diplomatic affairs who will support our initiative. They include former Prime Ministers of influential Commonwealth nations, distinguished diplomats, prominent international businessmen, senior military officials and well known media personalities.
CWBN, the Voice of the Commonwealth, is an innovative real time online platform that brings the latest global business news to the 54 nations of the Commonwealth. From the Caribbean through Europe, the Indian Ocean, to Australia and the Far East, CWBN provides up to date information and connects the Commonwealth’s diverse nations through business opportunities and information.
India has long played a dynamic role in United Nations operations around the world, including being the third largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping missions, contributing 180,000 troops and police to 49 missions, and was recently lauded by the UN for their efforts in preventing carnage in South Sudan.
PM Modi noted: “The largest number of supreme sacrifices mase by soldiers of any country for UN peacekeeping missions is from India”.
As part of its global campaign, CWBN will reach out to the Indian diaspora in Canada, USA, UK, France and Italy, Germany, South Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Caribbean, and the citizens of India themselves, to harness their support for a global petition directed to the other members of the UNSC, demanding India’s admission. This global petition will also request the leaders of their respective governments in the Commonwealth to lobby the UNSC Permanent Members and the General Assembly to make India’s membership a fact.
CWBN will request every Parliament in the Commonwealth to pass a resolution demanding a permanent seat for India and persuade elected representatives of national governments to understand the imperatives of Indian membership.
CWBN will also organize webinar events with global statesmen and academics to make the case for Indian membership and social media pages will be created to make the case. Schools and universities in the Commonwealth will be encouraged to write essays to be published on the CWBN platform, made the case for Indian membership.
This is a non-political campaign embracing politicians of every shade and a plea from the democratic masses of the world particularly the Commonwealth to those who make decisions about peace and war. This is a humble appeal from ordinary citizens, an appeal that should not be ignored.
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