M A I N   N E W S

India pips China for key seat on UN body
Ashok Tuteja/TNS

New Delhi, November 23
India got the better of China in a direct contest between the two Asian giants at the United Nations General Assembly for the lone seat on the UN Joint Inspection Unit from the Asia-Pacific region.

“The election on November 22 was for the appointment of an Inspector from Asia, for a term starting on January 1, 2013, on the completion of the term of an Inspector that was secured by China in 2003 and will be held by them (China) for 10 years till 2012,’’ a spokesman for the Permanent Mission of India (PMI) in New York said. India returns to this important external oversight body after a gap of 35 years.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN offices in Geneva A Gopinathan defeated Zhang Yan, Chinese Ambassador to India, to assume a place on the JIU.

India got 106 votes out of the 183 polled, while China secured 77 votes. India has served only once on the JIU 35 years ago from 1968 to 1977.

Officials in the External Affairs Ministry were quite excited over the development, expressing confidence that it would boost India’s campaign for a permanent seat on an expanded UN Security Council. “The very fact that we defeated China, a country which is a permanent member of the Security Council and which has a huge economic and diplomatic clout, reflects the increasing importance of India in world affairs,” a source said.

The source recalled that India had been elected with an overwhelming majority to the Security Council in the non-permanent category in October last year. India had polled as many as 187 votes in the 192-member UN General Assembly, the largest support received by any country for a non-permanent seat in the past five years.

The JIU is an independent external oversight body of the UN system, mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide. The JIU is a standing subsidiary organ of the General Assembly with a mandate covering the UN, its separately administered funds and programmes, and the specialised agencies that have accepted its statute. It is composed of not more than eleven inspectors serving for a term of five years, renewable once.

Article 3 of the statute of JIU requires the President of the General Assembly to consult with member states to draw up, with due regard to the principle of equitable geographic distribution and of reasonable rotation, a list of countries which would propose candidates. The practice has been to draw up this list through an election in the General Assembly.