'An old company ...': Jaishankar's scathing criticism of UN's fading influence

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday addressed the widely discussed debate around the relevance of the United Nations and the need for the multilateral body to reinvent itself to stay in tune with the changing times.
Choosing to give a business-like response, given the nature of the forum, the EAM quipped that the United Nations is "like an old company, not entirely keeping up with the market but still occupying the space".
EAM Jaishankar said that although the UN remains in place, its inability to address major issues push countries around the world to look for alternative solutions.

"There is a UN, howsoever sub-optimal, but when it doesn't step up on key issues, countries figure out own way of doing things," EAM said at the Kautilya Economic Conclave in the nation capital on Sunday.
The minister also touched upon, what he suggested was "inaction" of the UN during the Covid-19 outbreak.
"During Covid, countries either did their own thing or you had an initiative like Covax, which was done by a group of countries. When it comes to the big issues of the day, I think increasingly you find combinations of countries who come together and say, let's agree on this and let's go and do it," he said.
Referring to the raging war in Europe and Middle East and UN's inability to stop it yet, Jaishankar said, "Where is the UN on them, essentially a bystander?"
"Increasingly there is a non-UN space," further he said.
The EAM also raised the difficulty of resolving the region's challenges, especially with certain parties unwilling to recognise their roles in ongoing conflicts. He further pointed out the limitations in global political capacity, noting that some urgent issues are overshadowing others.
"There is limited bandwidth in global politics, with some issues taking up most of the attention."
As the one year anniversary of the Israel conflict looms large over the Middle East, Jaishankar said, "Tomorrow marks exactly one year since Israel... The IMEC is not dead, but the response we anticipated did not materialize."
"Last year's conflict showed that the risks are much higher than we had imagined. The growing number of risks, driven by the proliferation of various technologies and climate change, has only made the case stronger, not weaker," the EAM added.
( with inputs from ANI)