India, 2012

It is indeed a great privilege

for me to be able to address the General Assembly.

Let me begin by congratulating Mr. Vuk Jeremić on

his election to the office of President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-seventh session. I assure him of

our constructive support in his work over the coming

year.

We are assembled in New York at a time when we

face multiple global challenges that transcend national

boundaries. Developing countries are still to recover

from the downturn in the global economy. Their quest

for poverty eradication and sustainable development

remains an uphill task. Food and energy security as well

as health and education for their populations remain

daunting challenges. The West Asia-North Africa

region is seeing unprecedented sociopolitical upheaval.

The question of Palestine remains unresolved. Threats

emanating from terrorism, maritime piracy, drug

trafficking and the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction continue to multiply. Those challenges

demand that we work for solutions in a concerted and

coordinated manner. That is the only path to success.

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development (Rio+20), the international community

renewed its commitment to sustainable development

and recognized poverty eradication as the greatest

global challenge. To act on that, it unequivocally

reaffirmed the sanctity of the Rio principles. India

remains committed to addressing climate change

through a comprehensive, equitable and balanced

outcome based on the principles of equity and common

but differentiated responsibilities. In less than two

weeks, in Hyderabad, we will host the eleventh meeting

of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on

Biological Diversity. We seek the support of parties to

fashion an outcome that harmonizes strong biodiversity

action with our basic development objectives.

The process to develop a set of sustainable

development goals has begun. The Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) must be integrated in the

new framework so that the unmet development priorities

continue to be the main focus. In the interim, with still

three years to go to the MDG target date of 2015, it

is imperative to ensure that all efforts to achieve the

MDGs are made. In the global discourse on the post-

2015 development agenda, the focus ought to be on the

word “development”. It ought to be firmly entrenched

in the understandings and principles of Rio+20 and be

anchored in the intergovernmental process at the United Nations. Priority must be given to the challenges of

poverty, unemployment, food and energy, water, health,

environmental sustainability, unsustainable lifestyles

and, above all, economic growth.

Ensuring gender equality and women’s

empowerment is essential to the pursuit of building

inclusive societies. It is also an imperative for building

strong and resilient economies. We are happy to support

the efforts of the United Nations. We also need to pay

particular attention to upgrading the skills of young

people and to ensuring employment opportunities for

them. Children and youth are our future. We need to

invest in them to reap the demographic dividend to

secure our future.

India remains firmly committed to scaling up

our development partnership with Africa, including

through the framework of the India-Africa Forum

Summit. Similarly, we will continue to build on our

commitments for enhanced cooperation with least

developed countries, landlocked developing countries

and small island developing States within the framework

of South-South cooperation.

India is a multireligious, multi-ethnic and

multilingual society. Our civilizational ethos has been

underpinned by peaceful coexistence and tolerance,

values that the founder of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi,

placed at the core of India’s national life. Those

principles are enshrined in our Constitution, which

provides the foundation for our secular, democratic and

inclusive society.

Mutual respect for deeply held religious sentiments

is the bedrock of tolerance and coexistence. Unfortunate

recent events have highlighted the need for enhanced

dialogue among faiths and civilizations. Violence

cannot lead to greater understanding. It is necessary

to uphold norms of peaceful international discourse.

In particular, the safety and security of diplomatic

personnel should be fully respected.

Terrorism remains one of the most potent threats

to international peace and security. The international

community must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to

terrorism and must focus on efforts to dismantle the

infrastructure of terrorism, including its invidious

network of epicentres, training facilities and financing.

It is time we demonstrated the necessary political will to

agree on a comprehensive convention on international

terrorism so as to strengthen the normative framework against the increasingly sophisticated and globalized

terrorist challenge.

India continues to be gravely concerned by the

menace of piracy and armed robbery at sea. Apart from

the major economic and commercial consequences of

that scourge, it has serious humanitarian implications

for the large number of seafarers held hostage by

pirates. The need of the hour is once again concerted

international action under United Nations auspices,

with special attention to addressing the welfare of

seafarers and their families.

Peacekeeping and disarmament are among the

unique pursuits of the United Nations, because

they embody the promise and innate potential of the

Organization to make the world a better place. India

has a proud history of participation in United Nations

peacekeeping operations dating back to the 1950s,

having taken part in as many as 43 peacekeeping

operations. The challenge before the international

community today is to ensure that United Nations

peacekeeping is adequately resourced and enabled to

meet the realities of today, including in post-conflict

and peacebuilding contexts. In that regard, we are

hopeful that progress will be made on all outstanding

issues between the Sudan and South Sudan.

India is committed to achieving a nuclear-

weapon-free world. The principles of the Rajiv Gandhi

action plan of 1988 for achieving nuclear disarmament

in a time-bound, universal, non-discriminatory,

phased and verifiable manner remain relevant, even

after more than two decades. A renewed consensus

on non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament must

be forged. Meaningful dialogue among all States

possessing nuclear weapons is needed in order to build

trust and confidence and to reduce the salience of

nuclear weapons in international affairs and security

doctrines.

Measures must be taken to reduce nuclear

risks, including the grave risk of terrorists gaining

access to weapons of mass destruction, and thus

to strengthen nuclear security. The Conference on

Disarmament — the international community’s sole

multilateral disarmament negotiating forum — deserves

our support in discharging its mandate of negotiating

treaties on issues on the international disarmament

agenda.

The crisis in Syria continues unabated and is a matter

of serious concern for us. Any further militarization of the crisis can have catastrophic consequences for

the region. We urge all parties to commit themselves

to resolving the crisis without any further bloodshed

through an inclusive, Syrian-led political process

that can meet the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian

people. We support the efforts of the United Nations

and urge all sides to cooperate in good faith with the

Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and

the League of Arab States, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi.

Support for the Palestinian cause has been a

cornerstone of India’s foreign policy. We were privileged

to receive President Mahmoud Abbas in India earlier this

month. We support Palestine’s aspirations for enhanced

status at the United Nations. It is imperative that there be

an early realization of a sovereign, independent, viable

and united State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its

capital, living within secure and recognized borders,

side by side and at peace with Israel, as endorsed in

the Arab Peace Initiative, the Quartet road map and the

relevant United Nations resolutions.

India desires constructive and friendly relations

with all its neighbours. We have a vision of a peaceful,

stable and prosperous region with enhanced cooperation

and connectivity linking us with Central Asia, the

Gulf and South-East Asia. Within South Asia, we have

sought to enhance bilateral relations individually with

each of our neighbours and through the aegis of the

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

We have embarked on a resumed dialogue process

with Pakistan and advocate a step-by-step approach to

normalizing our bilateral relations.

An unwarranted reference has been made from

this rostrum to Jammu and Kashmir. Our principled

position on the issue has been consistent and is well

known. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have chosen

their destiny and reaffirmed it repeatedly through

India’s well-established democratic processes. We wish

to make it abundantly clear that Jammu and Kashmir is

an integral part of India.

India supports the Government and people of

Afghanistan in their endeavour to build a peaceful,

stable, democratic and prosperous country. We are

ready to partner with the Afghan people as they rebuild

their country in accordance with their own priorities

and national circumstances. The continuing existence

beyond Afghanistan’s borders of safe havens and

sanctuaries for terrorists is the major impediment to the

restoration of peace and security in Afghanistan. India is committed to creating an enabling environment in

which the Afghan people can live in peace and security

and decide their future for themselves, without outside

interference, coercion or intimidation.

The United Nations and the norms of international

relations that it has fostered remain the most

efficacious means for converting today’s challenges

into opportunities. However, we need to ensure that the

architecture of global governance reflects contemporary

realities. Sticking to structures designed at the end of

the Second World War only constrains multilateralism

from delivering on its promises.

The most important and decisive step towards

remedying that situation pertains to the Security

Council, which must be expanded in both the permanent

and non-permanent categories. A reformed Council

must include countries that are capable of bearing, and

willing to bear, the additional burdens relating to the

maintenance of international peace and security, as well

as willilng to sustain global campaigns against new and

emerging global threats. Let me also stress that we must

address, sooner rather than later, the incongruity of the

lack of permanent membership for Africa.

Equally, India will promote and lend its weight to

enhancing the voice and participation of developing

countries in decision-making in global economic and

financial institutions. The quota reform process of the

International Monetary Fund must be accelerated with

altered quotas that reflect contemporary economic

weight.

Speaking in the Assembly on 14 October 1968,

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said,

“The United Nations is the trustee of the

world’s peace and represents the hopes of mankind.

Its very existence gives a feeling of assurance that

the justice of true causes can be brought fearlessly

before the world. This Assembly and the agencies

of the United Nations should, in all that they do,

sustain those hopes and promote the causes of

peace”.

Those words remain true to this day.

Let me conclude by assuring the President and the

members of the Assembly that India will continue to

abide by the purposes and principles of the Charter of

the United Nations and will strive to strengthen the

United Nations.