India launches ninth bid for UN security council seat, unveils ‘Shanti’ vision 

New Delhi: The external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, launched the country’s campaign on Monday for a non-permanent seat on the UN security council for the 2028-29 term. Speaking at UN headquarters in New York, he unveiled a six-point framework called “Shanti” ­– Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity. 

The Shanti priorities include strengthening the voice of the global south and pushing for reformed, more representative multilateralism. They also cover modernizing UN peacekeeping, promoting human-centric artificial intelligence governance, supporting a rules-based maritime order under international law, and countering terror financing.

India will contest the Asia-Pacific group’s non-permanent seat, currently held by Bahrain, at next year’s UN general assembly election. If successful, it would be India’s ninth term on the 15-member council, after previously serving eight terms, most recently in 2021-22. Tajikistan has also announced its candidacy for the same seat, and India will need a two-thirds majority among the assembly’s 193 members to win.

Jaishankar said India would continue pursuing a permanent council seat alongside this campaign. He cited India’s contribution of nearly 300,000 personnel to about 50 UN peacekeeping missions over the decades, with around 4,300 currently deployed across 10 active missions.

On the side-lines of the launch, Jaishankar met the UN secretary general, António Guterres, where the two discussed the conflicts in West Asia, Ukraine and Sudan, and reaffirmed India-UN cooperation.