Vijay Nambiar focuses on UN's role in changing world

Mumbai, Aug 4 (UNI) Vijay Nambiar, IFS, Chief of Staff to the UN Secretary General, gave a lecture on '' United Nations in a changing world''to an attentive audience at the Y B Chavan Hall.

The lecture was organised by the Lalit Doshi Memorial Foundation.

Briefly tracing the history of the UN yesterday, he began on how the world has changed because of the UN. Starting off with peacekeeping, he pointed out the various areas around the globe where the UN had its presence through the decades. He told the audience that today there were more than 80,000 UN troops in 19 countries on peacekeeping missions. And since 2000, there has been a five-fold decrease in the death toll in local wars. At an annual expenditure of US 5 billion dollars, the UN is next only to the US in military expenditure.

In the socio-economic area, Mr Nambiar said, UN has a vast field presence, and has always been an active partner in bringing about domestic changes and trying to empower people to become both an agent and a beneficiary of development.

Moving on to India's relation with the UN, he said that India was a founding member of the UN and had contributed on issues of Human Rights way back in 1945 for the UN Charter. He, however, expressed his hope on India taking on a new role with more responsibilities and being 'bolder'on issues pertaining to Pakistan and China.

He also acknowledged the need for reforms within the UN, especially, on the issues of the Security Council and General Assembly.

On the subject of its future role, Mr Nambiar said, ''expectations from the UN are at an all time high'', with an active role being played by the media and the internet in world affairs. He added, that, while most of these expectations have been met by the UN, there is also a need for non government groups to constantly exert pressure on issues to cut through the diplomatic and political tangles.

UNI