United Nations Weak Not By Accident But By Design, Says Former UNSC President
Kishore Mahbubani emphasised on the need for reforms in the UN and the importance of the global body to deal with international issues.
The United Nations has been weakened not by accident but by design by the top powers that occupy the P5 role in the Security Council, said Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
"The UN is weak not by accident but by design. The P5 have insisted that the secretary general of the UN must be spineless. If you pick such, the UN will be weak," Mahbubani, a former president of the UNSC, said at the NDTV World Summit 2024 on Tuesday. "We must persuade the great powers to change approach and appoint dynamic secretary generals."
The P5 are the US, the UK, China, Russia and France that are permanent UNSC members and have veto power in the top executive body.
He emphasised on the need for reforms in the UN and the importance of the global body to deal with international issues.
Mahbubani mentioned a recent opinion column published in a prominent London newspaper, calling for the UK to give up its permanent UNSC seat to India. He said the concept of veto in the UNSC was introduced to accommodate the great powers during the period after the end of the second World War.
"After so many years, clearly the time has come to change the composition of great powers of the day and India is unquestionably one of the great powers. The UK is slipping down economically and is a country lost," he said.
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'Three Ms' Of New World Order
Kishore Mahbubani defines the current world order in 'three Ms'—multi-civilisational, multipolar and multilateral.
"We are no longer dominated by the West, it is losing its influence. There are other powers emerging in this world. Its in this context you see India and China," he said.
Calling the BRICS grouping a "sunrise club", of which major countries want to be part of, Mahbubani said the Western-dominated G7 on the other hand is "sunset club", whose power and share of global GDP is decreasing.
He said the rise of China and India is part of Asia's rise, even though, bilaterally, the depth of suspicion between the neighbours remains serious.
The former diplomat also noted the need for India to further open up its economy to integrate with global supply chains. "Most manufacturing comes from East Asian countries like China and ASEAN. India has to join initiative like RCEP and other trade setups to integrate with supply chains. Linkages with China will remain."
