Current Affairs
Modi’s Speech in UNGA
Modi’s UNGA 2014 Speech
- India and its philosophy
- Democracy everywhere
- To Pakistan
- Terrorism
- Three spaces
- Need for UN reforms
- Poverty
- Climate change
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India and its philosophy
·
India= one-sixth of humanity.
·
Undergoing rapid socio-economic transformation rarely seen in
history.
·
Every nation’s world view is shaped by philosophical tradition.
Ours is “Vasudheva Kutumbkam” i.e. India’s ancient wisdom sees the
world as one family.
·
Hence we strive for co-existence, cooperation, openness,
diversity and multilateralism.
Democracy everywhere
·
Today, there is a surge to democracy across the world
·
Afghanistan proved to Talibans that democracy
will prevail.
·
Nepal Maoists have left violence
and working towards democratic Constitution.
·
Bhutan’s young democracy is
flourishing as well.
·
Democracy finding a voice in West Asia and North Africa; Tunisia’s
success makes us believe that it is possible
·
We can see a trend towards Peace and stability everywhere-
Africa, Latin America, Asia and beyond.
To Pakistan
·
Kashmir is a bilateral issue, (Sharif) raising it at UN platform,
won’t solve it.
·
Instead of asking for Kashmir
plebiscites and referendums, we need to solve J&K flood problems. India even
offered help to PoK (but Paki Government is too arrogant to accept it.)
·
India prepared to engage in a serious bilateral dialogue with
Pakistan in a peaceful atmosphere, without the shadow of terrorism.
·
But Pakistan
must also take its responsibility seriously to create an appropriate (peaceful)
environment for it.
Terrorism
·
World is witnessing tensions and turmoil rarely seen in recent
history.
·
There are no major wars, but tensions and conflicts abound. (Recall
Pope said similar- “piecemeal third world war”)
·
Europe faces risk of new division.
·
West Asia = extremism at its zenith.
·
Africa= rising terrorism + Ebola
health crisis.
·
Asia= Maritime security and resource exploitation (indirect
reference to claims over South China sea)
·
Terrorism is taking new shape and new name.
·
No country, big or small, in the north or the south, east or
west, is free from its threat.
·
But we are still hobbled by our politics, we are making
distinction between good and bad terrorists?
·
Yes, India
wants to combat terrorism in West Asia-
because it’ll affect countries near and far.
·
But this should involve the support of all countries in the
region. (= need to include Iran
+ Russia, may be even Syria.)
·
Even today, some states (=Pakistan) provide sanctuaries to
terrorists, and use terrorism as their state policy.
·
But we should put aside our differences and adopt the
Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
Three spaces
·
On the one side, we say that our destinies are inter-linked, but
we still think in terms of zero sum game- If the other nation benefits, I stand
to lose.
·
In today’s inter-depended world, the countries are more united as
world, but still we are divided in various groupings.
·
While seas, space and cyber space are new avenues of prosperity.
They too becoming theatre of conflicts (China testing anti-satellite
missile, NSA-spying, Chinese hackers, Russian hackers and so on)
·
Therefore, need for United Nations, is stronger than before.
·
Not a single country (=America) can decide the fate of the
world. We should work together to ensure that all countries observe
international rules and norms.
·
Must work for global disarmament and non-proliferation.
Need for UN reforms
·
Institutions that reflect the imperatives of 20th century won’t
be effective in the 21st century. (UN, IMF, world bank)
·
Therefore, Nations grouping themselves into G9, G20. Why can’t we
become G1 or G-All (using UN platform)?
·
United Nations, and Security Council must become more democratic
and participative. (said similar in Tokyo
declaration)
·
Else, they will become irrelevant and we won’t be able to solve
future crisis (such as WW3 or ISIS v.2.0 or Subprime 2.0)
·
Developing countries provide most of the soldiers (blue helmets)
to UN Peacekeeping mission. They must be involved in decision making of UN
peace keeping plans.
Poverty
·
International trade agreement should accommodate concerns of
everyone. (with respect to Bali Summit,
TFA and Food security)
·
Our policy should be mutually supportive, not mutually damaging.
Climate change
·
Common but differentiated responsibilities. (Meaning first world
should provide truckload of funds to third world and transfer secret technologies
to combat climate change.)
·
India is prepared to share its
technology and capabilities. We even announced a free satellite for the SAARC
countries.
·
Energy not consumed is the cleanest energy. We need to change our
lifestyles accordingly.
·
Even without reckless (resource) consumption we can still achieve
same level of development.
·
Sustainable development doesn’t mean that economies will suffer;
these economies will take on a different character.
·
Indians respect for nature as part of spiritualism, all natural
bounties are sacred.
·
Listed benefits of Yoga and asked for designating International
Yoga Day.
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