India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is expected to attend a major security meeting in Moscow next week, organized by Russia's Security Council. Doval is invited for the 13th international meeting of high representatives for security issues, taking place from May 27-29. The meeting, chaired by Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, will see participation from over 150 countries and international organizations. Pakistan's NSA, Lt Gen Asim Malik, is also expected to attend the meeting, leading to speculation of a possible face-to-face meeting between the two NSAs amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack and subsequent retaliatory actions.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has called on Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) to defend the multilateral trading system amid increasing protectionism and tariff volatility during a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.
It is also the first time that TRF has been mentioned in any UN document. This marks the first mention of the LeT and any other Pakistan-based terror group in the report since 2019.
The government stated that Operation Sindoor was launched in response to a 'barbaric' attack by 'Pakistan-sponsored terrorists,' focusing on dismantling terror infrastructure and neutralizing terrorists likely to be sent across to India.
Jaishankar said the UN Security Council condemned the attack and underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of the reprehensible act and bring them to justice.
We have nothing to gain by raising our concerns internationally as our narrative has got entangled with several controversial concepts in the United Nations, asserts Ambassador T N Sreenivasan.
Erdogan said all non-P5 members should have an opportunity to become members of the Security Council by rotation.
In a significant victory, India has been re-elected to the UN's main human rights body for the period of 2015-17, receiving the highest number of votes in the Asia-Pacific group.
A UN Security Council report states that The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack and published a photograph of the attack site. The report also cites assertions that the attack could not have happened without the support of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is expected to visit India next week, marking the first high-level trip from Kabul since the Taliban's rise to power. The visit follows a temporary exemption to a UN travel ban and is expected to enhance India's relations with the Taliban government.
The General Assembly held a plenary meeting on Thursday on the issue of UN Security Council reforms during which Pakistan yet again raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
Shringla said India will continue to work towards the reformed United Nations during its stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
India and Pakistan got into a verbal exchange at the Security Council on the relevance of the United Nations observer group at Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, with India stressing the force's role has been overtaken by subsequent agreements signed by the two nations under which they resolved to settle differences "through bilateral negotiations".
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it "very clear" that any talks with Pakistan will be only on terror.
India and other like-minded countries in the United Nations Security Council decided to support a Western-backed draft resolution on Syria only after it was agreed to explicitly remove provisions of regime change, threat of sanctions and military intervention. The draft resolution on Syria, introduced by Morocco and supported by the Arab League, failed to be adopted by the UN Security Council as two of its permanent members, Russia and China, vetoed it.
India's candidature for permanent membership of the UN Security Council will be taken seriously only when it becomes a global economic and military power, able to protect and enhance its interests unilaterally, argues Harsh V Pant.
'Instead of fighting over whatever will be left of the present world, the permanent members of the UN security council should have raised a little finger to arrest the death and devastation around us,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
India, the largest contributor to the United Nation peacekeepers, has stressed on the need to ensure missions are made relevant to current realities and peacekeepers are not tasked with achieving 'Christmas tree-like' mandates.
As the UN marks 75 years of its existence, the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a forward-looking political declaration that gave a clarion call for strengthening mechanism to combat terrorism, reformed multilateralism, inclusive development and better preparedness to deal with challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN Security Council could meet soon to discuss the situation between India and Pakistan, with the UNSC President expressing concern over rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The President, Ambassador Evangelos Sekeris of Greece, said a meeting would provide an opportunity to express views and help diffuse tensions. Sekeris also condemned terrorism in all its forms, including the recent attack in Pahalgam, and called for de-escalation and dialogue between India and Pakistan.
The recently signed Gaza Peace Agreement is a 'landmark' step towards stability in the Middle East, India has said, reiterating that a two-state solution remains 'the only pragmatic path' to achieving durable peace between Israel and Palestine.
India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the security council, saying it rightly deserved a place as a permanent member.
China has put a hold on a proposal moved at the United Nations by the United States and co-supported by India to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Sajid Mir, one of India's most wanted terrorists and the main handler of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks, as a global terrorist.
Jaishankar said the world has experienced its consequences in terms of higher costs and shortages of foodgrains and fertilizers and fuel.
About 150 terrorist entities and individuals, either based or with links to Pakistan have been blacklisted by the United Nations, with the latest addition being of Abdul Rehman Makki, the Lashkar-e-Taiba deputy chief designated by the Security Council's Al Qaeda sanctions committee.
'I suspect that Bangladesh being given permission stuck in India's official craw, and this story was an attempt to balance the scales by giving the impression that a similar waiver had been given to India as well.'
Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia's call for a secret ballot on draft resolution on Ukraine.
'The Indian activities at the UN are fully reflecting the merit of our special and privileged strategic partnership'
Perturbed over calling 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed as as 'sahib' by a United States Security Council panel, India will seek a clarification on it from the world body.
'Stop terror, start talks. Let us wait for a response on that from the Pakistani side'
India has hit out at China for blocking a move to designate Pakistan-based LeT leader Sajid Mir as a "global terrorist" by the UN, saying it shows a lack of genuine political will to fight the scourge of terrorism.
The question is no longer whether the war will expand. It has. The next few days will tell us whether the war stabilises around Hormuz or whether the Strait itself becomes the trigger for a far larger rupture. What to watch for over the next 48 hours is simple: Any move by the US toward direct naval control of the Strait; any credible Iranian attempt to disrupt or mine shipping lanes and, critically, whether energy infrastructure in the Gulf continues to be targeted.If those lines are crossed in tandem, the war will no longer be containable within the region.
Guterres urged members of the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and appealed for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared.
The proposal is the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years to list Azhar as a global terrorist.
The Dutch envoy said to Tirumurti "You should not have abstained in the GA. Respect the UN Charter."
'Don't play the American game... India is too big for a US game.'
The 193-member general assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia's "illegal so-called referendums in regions within the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine and the attempted illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, following the organisation of the above-mentioned referendums".
India reasserted that Pakistan requested a cessation of firing via DGMO contact and addressed concerns about Pakistan's roles in UNSC committees.
Iran is fighting a different war: Older, slower, and in some ways more dangerous. Iran doesn't need to shoot down an F/A-18. It only needs to make the Strait of Hormuz feel dangerous long enough for insurance markets, shipping companies, and oil futures traders to do the rest. Prem Panicker continues his must-read daily blog on the war in the Middle East.
