India at the United Nations

India gives much to the United Nations, but gains very little from it. India is not small and undeveloped enough to benefit from the UN’s altruism nor large or powerful enough to manipulate it to its advantage. India’s commitment to multilateralism and the UN is firm and absolute yet India has very little to show in terms of reciprocal advantages. India’s basic approach of treating the United Nations as an instrument of common good rather than as a body to advance national interests is consistent with India’s faith in multilateralism. In an increasingly interdependent world, global problems require global solutions and as the only universal international organisation UN has the primary role. It may not have rid the world of the scourge of war, but it has certainly made an invaluable contribution to peace and security. Even if the major powers resort to coalitions of the willing to fight their battles, they do so only after trying to enlist the support of the United Nations because unilateral actions are suspect in the eyes of the world.