India reaffirms UN peacekeeping commitment

India's minister of state for defence, Dr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, was in London recently to attend the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial summit hosted by the UK. He explains the lead India is taking in the field for 'India Investment Journal'. India's minister of state for defence, Dr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, reaffirmed the country's commitment to UN Peacekeeping Operations and confirmed that India will provide troops for UN Peacekeeping as pledged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York last year. Speaking at the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial summit in London, the minister highlighted India's “consistent and substantive response” over the past seven decades of UN Peacekeeping Operations. He said: “More than 230,000 Indian troops have participated in 50 of the 71 UN peacekeeping operations mandated by the UN Security Council so far. India has also aided in capacity building of many countries, training 114 prospective peacekeepers from 35 countries this year itself; with a special course each for African countries and for female peacekeepers.” The Indian minister highlighted the country's “tremendous experience” in such operations worldwide and assured further strengthening of global cooperation in the field. Dr Bhamre drew attention to the challenges being faced by UN Peacekeeping, with armed groups and non-state actors playing “spoilers” to peace efforts. UN Peacekeeping Missions are no longer “benign and humanitarian tasks” but a major facet of current UN missions and called on the United Nations to work in sync with host governments to avoid “turbulence”. He also voiced the need to bring about qualitative improvements in the performance of UN contingents, UN staff and mission leadership. The minister reiterated the issues raised by Modi last year during the Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping, including the necessity to involve Troop Contributing Nations involved in mandate formulation, representation in key leadership positions in mission areas; and above all, the requirement of a more representative Security Council. The London ministerial meeting, hosted by UK defence secretary Michael Fallon, was a follow-up to the Leaders' Summit in New York in 2015. Its agenda involved following up on the peacekeeping commitments made by countries during the US summit. While in London, the Indian minister also held a bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart, Harriett Baldwin, minister for defence procurement in the UK ministry of defence. He reiterated India's resolve to enhance its defence capability and improve its defence industrial base and invited greater British participation in the Narendra Modi led government's flagship Make in India programme. “The meeting was held in very cordial atmosphere. A wide range of issues covering the entire spectrum of defence cooperation between India and UK were discussed at the meeting, including Indo-UK collaboration in joint research, development and production which has tremendous potential for growth,” an official statement said. He also drew attention to the challenges being faced by both countries due to increased terrorist activities globally as well as cross-border terrorism being faced by India. “He emphasised that terrorism is a global phenomenon and a clear message must go to countries supporting terrorism. There could be no differentiation between good and bad terrorists. The UK minister acknowledged India's stand on terrorism and expressed UK's resolve to cooperate in the field of counter-terrorism,” the statement noted. During his visit, he also interacted with British Indian MP Alok Sharma, minister of state for Asia and the Pacific in UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and discussed a wide range of bilateral issues.