India and UN have ‘indispensable’ partnership, Ban says during visit
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the long-standing relationship between India and the United Nations in areas ranging from peace and security to achieving global anti-poverty goals to sustainable development, as he began a two-day visit to the country.
“Ours is an indispensable partnership,” Mr. Ban told an audience in New Delhi, which was his first overseas posting as a young Korean diplomat 36 years ago.
Speaking at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, named for the former prime minister who was slain in 1991, Mr. Ban noted that India is an indispensable partner for peace and security.
As of the end of last month, India was the third largest contributor to peacekeeping, with more than 8,700 personnel at work for peace in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan, Lebanon and Timor-Leste.
India is also an indispensable partner in UN efforts to achieve the global targets to halve poverty and other ills by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and promote sustainable development, the Secretary-General said.
In that regard, he commended India’s efforts to address climate change, stating that the country has a well established tradition of innovation and industrial capacity that has benefited North and South alike. “Your respected voice in the developing world in particular can influence others to follow suit,” he stated.
Climate change was also the focus of a meeting Mr. Ban held in the capital with leading Indian business leaders. He highlighted the important role played by the private sector in tackling climate change, which he called the “defining challenge of our era,” as well as in devising solutions, including the search for clean energy sources.
“The scientific evidence of climate change is overwhelming. It is abundantly clear that a model of economic growth fuelled by carbon-based energy is no longer viable over the long-term. The search for clean energy is an absolute necessity,” he said.
“India has the tremendous potential to offer leadership in moving in a new direction, and building the clean energy industry,” he told the gathering, which included Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Nobel laureate.
Mr. Ban noted that many businesses are already showing commendable foresight and leadership in the search for alternative and renewable sources of energy. Many of them have also joined the UN’s “Caring for Climate” initiative, which focuses on business solutions to global warming and action on climate change.
The Secretary-General called on business leaders to “seize the opportunities presented by the emerging green economy,” noting that action on climate change has the potential to create millions of new jobs. “There is no safety or savings to be found in harmful patterns of energy use and development,” he added.
While in New Delhi, Mr. Ban also met with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
He wraps up his visit to India tomorrow and then heads to Nepal, the third leg of a four-nation Asia tour that also includes the Philippines and Bangladesh.