Urgent need for time-bound exit strategies for peacekeeping missions: India at UNSC

India on Monday (local time) emphasised the importance of time-bound exit strategies to ensure that peacekeeping missions do not become instruments for furthering political interests.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), TS Tirumurti, permanent representative of India to the UN, said that the Peacekeeping missions are meant to be transitional measures and not operate in perpetuity.

"Peacekeeping missions are meant to be transitional measures and not operate in perpetuity. There is an urgent need for time-bound exit strategies to ensure that peacekeeping missions do not become instruments for furthering political interests," he said.

He further asserted that peacekeeping is one of India's core priorities.

In the context of Covid, he said India was happy to respond to the request of the UN Secretary-General. "We swiftly dispatched two medical teams and upgraded India's peacekeeping hospitals in MONUSCO in DRC and UNMISS in South Sudan," he said, adding that India is committed to working with partners of this Committee on measures to make UN peacekeeping operations more effective, efficient, and transformative.

On the role of peacekeeping personnel in the present times, Tirumurti said that the peacekeeping operations are multi-operational. The personnel are called upon to not only maintain peace and security but also to facilitate the political processes, protect civilians, disarm combatants, support elections, protect and promote human rights and restore the rule of law, he said.

He reiterated India's stance on the adoption of 'No National Caveats Policy' at the UN peacekeeping deployments, stating that "India believes that a caveat, whether declared or undeclared, places an additional burden on those who do not have any caveats besides having an impact on the performance of peacekeepers in fulfilling their mandate and safety and security."

At the UNSC, India also emphasised the effective implementation of the Integrated Performance Policy Framework as an honest assessment and feedback for peacekeeping performance is essential to have an effective accountability system.

Tirumurti condemned the regular attacks on the UN peacekeeping personnel and said that there is a need for upgradation of security infrastructure of camps by "conducting a comprehensive medical mapping exercise for all missions and plugging the gaps related to counter-IED resources for missions facing such threats, needs immediate attention.

( With inputs from ANI )