Pakistan’s stagecraft at the Security Council

THE gavel of the President of the UN Security Council during the month of July 2025 rests with Pakistan. It is a procedural turn, not a power shift. The presidency rotates monthly and is meant to facilitate, not redefine, the council's functioning.From India's vantage, this is less about leadership and more about symbolism. Yet symbolism, if left unchecked, can cast long shadows. When Pakistan, a state with a history of cloaking bilateral grievances in multilateral rhetoric, is in the chair, India has reason to remain alert.Pakistan's presidency coincides with a revival of military engagement with the United States, signalled by President Trump hosting Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir for lunch, followed by the visit of Air Chief Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu. But access in bilateral corridors does not automatically confer weight in multilateral arenas. At the United Nations, the architecture of influence remains unchanged.Yet, buoyed by these optics, Pakistan has signalled its intentions. Its diplomats speak of conflict prevention, multilateralism and the peaceful settlement of disputes. On the surface, these are familiar refrains of diplomatic routine. But in context, they reveal calibrated intent. The stated aim is to spotlight unresolved conflicts and promote the use of Chapter VI of the UN Charter. For India, the subtext is unmistakable. Jammu and Kashmir will be the lodestar of Pakistan's month as President of the Security Council.On July 22, Islamabad will convene a high-level open debate chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on promoting international peace and security through multilateralism and the peaceful settlement of disputes.Pakistan will invoke UN resolutions from a different century. It will frame Kashmir as a festering dispute and remind the council that the item remains on its formal agenda. And it will dress bilateral discontent in multilateral clothing. Like stage props rearranged for a familiar script, Pakistan's initiatives are designed more for optics than outcome. It plans to pursue a generic resolution, urging members and the Secretariat to make full use of Chapter VI tools, such as mediation, facilitation and recourse to the International Court of Justice.Two days later, on July 24, Pakistan will hold a briefing on cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations in maintaining peace and security, with particular attention to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Dar will preside, and OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha is expected to participate.The aim is to elevate the OIC's role as a normative UN partner, drawing on the presence of five OIC members among the 10 elected council members. But beneath the language of inclusivity lies the intent to graft OIC positions, particularly on J&K, into the council's broader discourse. It is not an exercise in consensus building. It is a calibrated attempt to shift the frame, and with it, the narrative.India, however, is not walking into this unarmed. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has inaugurated an exhibit on terrorism at the UN Headquarters, on display through July. It chronicles major terror attacks, including those in Jammu and Kashmir. The message is quiet but pointed. When Pakistan plays the victim, India will cite evidence. When legality is raised, legitimacy will answer. This is not reaction. It is preemption.Outside the UN, too, India is equally poised. The Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting in Washington and the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro offer timely forums to spotlight cross-border terrorism and reinforce strategic partnerships. India is not countering provocation with volume. It is calibrating influence through coalitions that matter.What also strengthens India's hand is the position of the permanent members. Four of the five — the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Russia — have long held that Kashmir is a bilateral matter.China, aligned with Pakistan for its own reasons, is unlikely to invest diplomatic capital. Beijing understands that the council does not revise the past when it cannot reshape the present.The presidency is transient. Real leverage lies not in wielding the gavel, but in setting the tempo of long-term conversations. India's response must be proportionate, restrained and deliberate. It must frame Pakistan's interventions for what they are: performances choreographed for the domestic gallery, not instruments of consequence.In all likelihood, Pakistan's effort will yield little. There may be sound and fury, but the Kashmir issue will not be reopened. India has seen this choreography before. We know how it ends.Even so, vigilance is not optional. Weak platforms, like the council in its current phase, can still transmit false signals if left unanswered. Diplomacy, like deterrence, often turns on perception more than position.New Delhi does not need to echo Islamabad's volume. While Pakistan is chasing its moments at the UN, India has invested in momentum. It operates through constellations of trust, not constellations of noise.In time, Pakistan's presidency will be forgotten. What will endure is India's quiet assertion that power is not performed, it is sustained. And that the future belongs not to those who posture but to those who prevail.Syed Akbaruddin is India's former permanent representative to the UN.

Pakistan’s stagecraft at the Security Council

Syed Akbaruddin

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