Red Lantern Analytica welcomes and fully endorses India’s plea for increased UN Security Council transparency, objectivity, and accountability while addressing the challenge of listing and delisting terrorism-related persons and entities.

India has brought a legitimate concern to the UN that has eroded the international community’s confidence in its counter-terrorism efforts. The member states of the UN cannot decide on terrorism through geopolitical convenience or the interpretation and consideration of terrorism in a selective manner. India also does not appreciate the fact that certain U.N. member states consider certain political individuals and groups as useful. The reality is that a terrorist who is a threat to one country cannot be treated differently from the terrorist who is a threat to another country.

India has good reason to question the UN’s ability to respond to the threats it faces given India’s efforts to bring international sanctions against terrorists based in Pakistan and related to attacks on India. The obstructive behaviour of the UN Security Council has, on several occasions, created barriers to India’s efforts to respond to terrorism. China has used technical holds to obstruct proposals targeting Pakistan-based terrorists, including the head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Masood Azhar.

This demonstrates that the international community cannot demand collective efforts to meet counter-terrorism goals while also ensuring that obstruction and opacity characterize the most important of the international community’s security efforts. The counter-terrorism efforts of the international community are not possible while countries continue to employ political considerations that are incompatible with counter-terrorism to provide indirect protection for terrorists, their financiers, and their supporters. The objections, requests for delisting, and holds must each be substantiated with reasons. The Security Council should never become a political arm of efforts to protect terrorists and those who support them financially.

Red Lantern Analytica additionally advocates for comprehensive reform of the Security Council pertaining to the demands of the Indian government. The security structures and systems created post-World War II will not last forever. The UN has continued to grow, and there are now more emerging markets and centres. The Global South is also more important than ever before. This all further demonstrates the need for multi-faceted reform.

India’s position for all categories, permanent and non-permanent, of expansion, as well as representation for developing nations and progress through negotiations, is legitimate and should be recognized internationally. The Security Council must focus on the present day and thus respond to the needs of the time and offer accountability and representation, as legitimate structures of the modern world order.

India continues to support UN peacekeeping and international counter-terrorism efforts. It is therefore important for India that the Security Council responds to the challenges of the 21st century, and not just meet India’s request for representation. It is about the integrity of the UN as a whole.

There can be no double standards on terrorism. Political expediency must never provide a shield for terrorists or their support networks. A strengthened UN should defeat terrorism and protect the people of the world.