All is not well with UN: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday sharply criticised the United Nations, saying the world body had become “gridlocked, polarised and unrepresentative” and that its credibility was being seriously undermined by its failure to act decisively on issues such as terrorism and global development.

Speaking at the UN@80 celebrations in New Delhi, Jaishankar said while India remains a “strong votary of the United Nations and multilateralism”, the institution today faces a crisis of both legitimacy and effectiveness.

“We must recognise that all is not well with the United Nations. Its decision-making neither reflects its membership nor addresses global priorities. Its debates have become polarised and its working visibly gridlocked,” he said.

The minister, who was addressing diplomats and senior officials at an event organised by the Department of Posts to mark the UN’s 80th anniversary, said the “reform process itself” has been used to block any meaningful change. “Now, financial constraints have emerged as an additional concern. How to sustain the UN even while seeking its re-invention is clearly a major challenge before all of us,” he noted.

Jaishankar’s remarks come amid India’s long-standing push for reform of the UN Security Council to give greater voice to developing nations. India has repeatedly called for expansion of the council’s permanent membership to include countries like itself, Japan, Germany and Brazil.

In a particularly pointed passage, Jaishankar cited the UN’s failure to act against terror groups and the countries shielding them. “When a sitting Security Council member openly protects the very organisation that claims responsibility for the barbaric terror attack such as at Pahalgam, what does it do to the credibility of multilateralism?” he asked, in a veiled reference to China’s repeated blocking of UN sanctions against Pakistan-based terror outfits.

He added that equating victims and perpetrators of terrorism “in the name of global strategy” reflects the cynical state of international politics. “When self-proclaimed terrorists are shielded from the sanctioning process, what does it say for the sincerity of those involved?” he said.

The External Affairs Minister also lamented the lack of progress on the UN’s sustainable development goals, saying the slowing down of the 2030 agenda was a “significant metric of the distress of the Global South”.

“The Global South has felt the pain even as the more developed insulated themselves from consequences,” he said, referring to ongoing global conflicts and economic disparities.

Jaishankar, however, struck a note of optimism towards the end, asserting that India continues to believe in multilateral cooperation despite the UN’s flaws. “However difficult, the commitment to multilateralism must remain strong. However flawed, the United Nations must be supported in this time of crisis,” he said.

The event also saw the release of a commemorative postage stamp designed through a nationwide competition among students to mark 80 years of the United Nations.