Third World nations missing India at UN

THE presence of the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, from the annual session of the UN General Assembly would be missed by the third world countries, who look to India for taking a lead on issues of concern for them.

Prime Minister Singh meanwhile is skipping the UN session to attend the first summit of the India-Brazil-South Africa Forum that is beginning on September 11 and will be held in Brazil. He would later go to Cuba to attend the 14th Summit of Non Aligned Movement.

Diplomatic observers at the United Nations are of the opinion that the presence of PM Singh would have given more impetus to two of the crucial Indian campaignpushing Shashi Tharoor for the post of Secretary General and the campaign to get a permanent member seat in the Security Council.

A section of observers at the UN are of the opinion that the Indian foreign policy has matured enough and had gained enough strength to afford such things. However, another section of foreign policy analysts feel that such confidence would not be in country’s favor. At least for India, this is the most crucial year. While it is at this time that a decision on the new Secretary General would be taken, reforms of the Security Council would also take a shape, said a UN diplomat. I hope India continues to take UN seriously as it has been taking so far and playing the role of representing the voice of the developing and under-developed countries of the world, he added.

Indian officials insist that since Prime Minister cannot stay away from the country for long, such a decision was taken.

UN diplomats said that the presence of the Prime Minister was also important for India to continue playing the lead role for the third world countries. Several important issues for the third world countries are scheduled to be taken up during General Assembly session. Many a times, the third world countries would be looking towards India for representing them. Presence of the Prime Minister, even though ceremonial, would only help in giving more weight to it, the diplomat said.

However, the silver line is that Singh would be devoting his time during this period for crucial issues for the third world countries and giving a new shape and direction to the Non Aligned Movement at a crucial juncture of the new world order.