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.
China appears determined to upgrade Pakistan's military capabilities, sufficient to ensure local parity with India, alerts former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.
It is important for India to pay close attention to both the tone and substance of authoritative remarks coming out of Pakistan, explains former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees the prospect of making the Security Council more democratic, exclusively, through broadening the representation of countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the month of Ramzan, a breakthrough coming after more than five months since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Jaishankar said the world has experienced its consequences in terms of higher costs and shortages of foodgrains and fertilizers and fuel.
Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia's call for a secret ballot on draft resolution on Ukraine.
The US took the lead, and many other council members also joined and made it clear that the Kashmir issue was not a matter for the UN body to discuss and is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
India said perhaps the Permanent Representative of Pakistan is "not aware that Osama bin Laden was hiding in their own country in plain sight, and it is the US forces which got him inside Pakistan. Nor have they heard their Prime Minister refer to Osama bin Laden as a martyr."
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.
China on Friday said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Tianjin later this month will be the largest in the bloc's history, with 20 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attending it.
Israel's aerial assault on Iran is widely viewed as an act of naked aggression with no basis in international law, carried out unilaterally despite US opposition and aimed at derailing ongoing US-Iran nuclear negotiations, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The situation in Syria remains a focal point for all the neighbouring nations after Syrian rebels on Sunday entered the capital Damascus, forcing Assad to flee, ending his over two-decade rule in the country.
After more than four hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, the US and Russia agreed on four key principles, Rubio said on Tuesday. These include appointing a high-level team to help "negotiate and work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine" in a way that's "acceptable to all the parties engaged."
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting that at least 100 terrorists were killed in the Indian strikes on terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under 'Operation Sindoor'. Leaders from various parties showed maturity and extended all support to the government and armed forces.
Three Indian peacekeepers, who lost their lives serving under the UN flag last year, are among the 103 military, police, and civilian peacekeepers who will be honoured posthumously with a prestigious medal in the United Nations for their service and supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.
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.
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.
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".
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.
'The Indian activities at the UN are fully reflecting the merit of our special and privileged strategic partnership'
Gandhi urged the prime minister to speak out "clearly, boldly and forthrightly" on behalf of the legacy that India has long represented.
'The escalation of tension along the border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation is a matter of deep concern'
He added that there was a proposal from France and UK some time ago for some restrictions in the use of the right of veto.
New Delhi, while opting not to retaliate yet to the American tariffs, has in recent weeks sought to reinforce its friendship with Moscow, and recalibrate its ties with Beijing rather than surrender to Washington's diktats.
The Dutch envoy said to Tirumurti "You should not have abstained in the GA. Respect the UN Charter."
'Stop terror, start talks. Let us wait for a response on that from the Pakistani side'
Pakistan on Thursday said India's stand that the Simla Agreement of 1972 supersedes earlier United Nations resolutions on Kashmir is not legally tenable even as it sought "serious negotiations" on all outstanding disputes.
'It is typical of China's strategic deception of making virtue out of necessity,' observes Rup Narayan Das.
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.
China and Pakistan are in a tight strategic alliance. India must deal with them one at a time, but be prepared in case they decide to collude, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Noting that Israel is not interested in escalation of situation in the Middle East, country's Ambassador to India Reuven Azar said on Saturday that Israel defence forces attacked military targets in Iran 'in a very precise way' and that 'there is a price to pay when you attack the state of Israel'.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a Brazil-led draft resolution that would have called for humanitarian pauses in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict to allow full access for aid to the Gaza strip after the US vetoed the text.
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".
However, the US said, it is not prepared to have discussions on the issue ahead of other "extremely important reforms" that have to take place in the world body.
Pakistan had submitted the names of Angara Appaji and Gobinda Patnaik for designation under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.
"The fight against impunity is critical to the larger pursuit of securing peace and justice. The Security Council must send an unambiguous and unequivocal message on this count," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the 15-nation UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine 'Fight against impunity'.
The political and ideological differences between the Congress and Shashi Tharoor is no longer a matter of whispers.
Guterres referred to the Simla Agreement, which is a bilateral agreement and rejects any third-party mediation in the issue.
Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, an United Nations-designated terrorist who trained the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) attackers for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and acted as the outfit's chief on at least two occasions, died in a prison in Pakistan's Punjab province while serving a sentence for terror financing, his aide said on Wednesday.
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