India an avid, committed advocate of multilateralism: UNGA President

United Nations: Describing India as a leader at the United Nations, General Assembly President Dennis Francis has said the country has been an avid and committed advocate of multilateralism and as a democracy of 1.4 billion people, it has a bright future in making a continued strong contribution to global affairs.

The remarks by Francis, the President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, came ahead of the end of his year-long tenure on Monday as head of the 193-member UN body.

“There's no doubt about it - India is definitely a leader at the United Nations. India has been an avid and committed advocate of multilateralism, which is very much valued by the United Nations,” Francis told PTI in an exclusive interview here.

Former Prime Minister of Cameroon Philemon Yang will take over as President of the 79th Session of the General Assembly on September 10.

Francis underlined that he expects India's role to continue and be strengthened. "We know of course that India has an ambition to become a permanent member of the Security Council. Members will decide when they arrive at that point as to how to reform the Council and which members would be best placed to represent the current constellation of actors and the current distribution of power in the system.   “But for a democracy of 1.4 billion people, I'm sure no one overlooks the fact that India has a bright future in making a continued strong contribution to world affairs and in the realm of international affairs. So I imagine that pattern will continue to be demonstrated,” he said.

India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the 15-nation Security Council, saying the powerful UN body does not reflect current geopolitics realities and underscoring that it rightly deserves a permanent seat at the horse-shoe table. India last sat at the UN high table as a non-permanent member in 2021-22.

Francis added that India has also demonstrated “enormous commitment” as an advanced developing country in sharing its expertise with other developing countries in the Global South in the context of South-South cooperation, which he said is highly commendable on the part of the Government of India.

He said there's a very keen interest, based on India’s own experience in the area of digitalisation and technology. "And understandably so” because digitalisation is the key to unlocking the potential that exists in countries.

“Digitalisation is as much an input to economic development as it is itself a contributor,” he said.

Francis has on several previous occasions lauded India’s use of digitalisation to alleviate poverty and bring millions of people into the formal economic system “simply through the use of a handset and a digitalisation model.” During his tenure as General Assembly President, Francis visited India in January this year, during which he held a bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi and also travelled to Jaipur and Mumbai. During the visit, his interactions with government officials, civil society members and think tanks focused on issues such as sustainability, multilateralism, accessibility, and digital public infrastructure.

Last week, India’s Permanent Representative designate to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, who arrived here to take up his new role as Delhi’s envoy to the world body, met Francis at the UN headquarters.

Amb Harish said in a post on X that he benefitted from Francis’s “insights on various issues of mutual interest. Appreciated General Assembly’s support to India during his Presidency. A pleasure to listen to his experiences from his India visit.” On his meeting with the new Indian envoy, Francis in the interview said he was very pleased to receive Amb Harish and the two had “very expansive” and fulsome conversations and discussions.

“It’s clear that he has come with a lot energy and perspective,” Francis said adding that they discussed the current state of peace and security in the world, the outlook for the Summit of the Future, turbocharging the SDGs, digitalisation, the role of technology in economic development and how that is being taken on board in the context of multilateral negotiations.

The two also discussed the situation in Gaza.

“We both agreed and hoped that solution could be found soon, a ceasefire, with the support of key regional players and other global partners to bring this difficult situation to an end,” Francis said. They also discussed Security Council reform, "but not in any detail, in the overall context of reforming of the global institutions in order to better position those with the power to make decisions that would have resonance across the world in the interest of everyone, not just a few,” he said.

Francis added that he looks forward to working with Harish and his delegation going forward. “I'm sure I will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working with his predecessor Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj,” whom he described as a great colleague and friend.

Kamboj, the first Indian woman to serve as the country's Permanent Representative to the UN, retired from the prestigious position in May this year.

As world leaders gather in New York for the UN’s landmark ‘Summit of the Future’ event on September 22-23 followed by the UN General Assembly high-level week, Francis said his hope from the ambitious Summit is that leaders will be able to issue the Pact of the Future that will help re-energise the process towards achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, address crucial global challenges, including climate change and denuclearisation.

“We are in a particularly dangerous mood at this time where nuclear tensions have again risen to the point where the rhetoric is extremely unsettling and worrisome.” At the Summit, world leaders will adopt the Pact for the Future, which will include a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations as annexes.

Noting that there have been naysayers about the continued relevance of multilateralism, with some charging that multilateralism is dead, Francis said, "It's not dead. In fact, it's quite alive. We hope the Summit of the Future will demonstrate the extent to which multilateralism continues to be a dynamic, productive, result-oriented, problem-solving process.”