India and Pakistan both in the UNSC: Will they fight or work together?

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury Two south Asian neighbours - India and Pakistan - are now in the critically important Security Council of the United Nations and this has raised an obvious question - will they fight there also or cooperate in greater causes of world peace and stability? Since the two traditional neighbours have mostly demonstrated their usual enmity and divergence on various issues taking at times even diametrically opposite positions, the impression that immediately comes to the mind is that they may also show the same pattern in the UNSC. But, this has to be remembered that the Security Council of the world body is a highly sensitive and very important forum where many decisions are taken with great care and wisdom. Both New Delhi and Islamabad have served the forum before as non-permanent members and certainly are familiar with the milieu and as such, it is expected that the South Asian neighbours will work in cohesion for the greater cause of peace and tranquillity on a global scale. However, there is hardly an iota of doubt that they would hardly miss any opportunity of one castigating the other or even taking on the regional rival when anything comes to the Security Council that would entail their interests that could be conflicting in many ways. Nonetheless, there is something to relish about on a regional context since two South Asian nations are members of the coveted 15-member UN Security Council. Whether they fight or cooperate on different issues is a matter to be seen later, but the good news is that two SAARC countries are UNSC members. Indeed, it is a great achievement when seen from the prism of regional influence in the international affairs. True, they did serve together in the same forum earlier as well, but this does not diminish the significance of their being members there together once again. Other South Asian nations can derive some degree of satisfaction out of this development regardless of their bilateral ties with New Delhi and Islamabad. It should be the logical expectation of the other SAARC nations that India and Pakistan would work closely in matters where the regional interest emerges as an issue and also that they would spare no efforts for reducing tensions in South Asia - their differences on many issues notwithstanding. India is already a member of the UNSC and its role is being noticed on several important global conflicts and issues that at times also require votes by all the fifteen members of the council. Pakistan, on the other hand, has just been elected as a member to the Security Council and this will come into effect from January 1, 2013.They are elected for two-year term as all the non-permanent members of the UNSC are chosen by votes for such term. For the election of a seat in the Security Council, an aspirant nation has to secure at least two thirds of the votes of the members of the world body. Pakistan managed to scrape through beating other candidates and this has come as a feather in the cap of the country's new female Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who is already in discussions in the region and beyond since becoming the first woman foreign minister of Pakistan less than three months ago. Her first official trip in that capacity was a crucially significant one as it was in India for complex talks with the arch rival on a variety of difficult issues. But parleys with her Indian counterpart S M Krishna, who is more than double the age of 34-year-old Khar, had gone off fairly well. What was remarkable was that the perennially hostile Indian media and even the political circles greeted the graceful young Pakistani foreign minister positively given their known belligerence. She also appeared to have dealt well with the experienced Indian foreign minister, who wished her well in her task despite the known differences of the positions of the two countries in different subjects. Hina was later in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session where she faced contentious issues like worsening ties with the United States, the most powerful country in the world, mainly on the terrorism related issues. Islamabad was somewhat isolated in the global affairs because of some developments - mainly problems with the US, but it triumphed in the UNSC membership. It has come as a shot in the arms of the Pakistan government which is otherwise in a slippery ground as far as the foreign matters are concerned owing to difficulties on certain key issues. India is an emerging power on several counts and is much larger and important than Pakistan for obvious reasons. It is also claiming a permanent seat in the UNSC where the five permanent members are - the United States, UK, France, Russia and China. India, Brazil and Germany are clamouring for the permanent membership and it is believed that they would get such membership if the UN is re-structured on some fundamental characteristics. India and Pakistan are known to be inimical to each other, but have also cooperated on many occasions including in the growth and development of the regional forum SAARC although they also differ on many issues in the forum. Here, the spirit of cooperation is more praiseworthy even if on small areas than the enmity in many fields. Hopefully, they would demonstrate unity and adopt similar positions where larger interest of the region and world are at stake. At least, the permanent representatives of both the countries in the UN have pledged to work in that spirit and this is certainly commendable. zaglulbss@yahoo.com