India is not friendless in the United Nations Security Council and Pakistan chairing its Taliban Sanctions Committee and being named vice-chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee is a designation without much practical consequence, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said.
Tharoor is leading a multi-party Parliamentary delegation to the US to brief key interlocutors about the threat of Pakistan-backed terrorism faced by India and India's strong resolve against terrorism.
"These committees all work on consensus and it's not really possible for a chairman to single-handedly get something through that the others resist or push a particular line that other countries are not in favour of," Tharoor said during an interaction at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC on Thursday.
Pakistan, a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the 2025-26 term, will chair the Council's Taliban Sanctions Committee for 2025 and will be vice-chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the 15-nation UN organ.
Guyana and Russia will be vice-chair of the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee. Algeria will chair the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee while France and Russia will be the other vice-chairs.
Pakistan will also be co-chair of the Informal Working Groups on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions and on the General UNSC Sanctions Issues.
India has consistently reminded the international community that Pakistan is host to the world's largest number of UN-proscribed terrorists and entities. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan's Abbottabad for years and was killed in an operation by the US Navy Seals in May 2011.
During the Parliamentary delegation's interaction at the embassy with think tankers and young professionals, Tharoor was asked about Pakistan chairing the two UNSC sanctions committees.
Noting that there are half a dozen counterterrorism committees of the UNSC, he said that Council members take turns presiding over such bodies.
"So as long as Pakistan is on the Security Council, this kind of "privilege" might come their way We are not exactly friendless on the Security Council, so we're fairly confident that that is going to be a designation without much practical consequence," he said.
He underlined that India's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York will monitor this carefully.
On Wednesday, during a press conference at the embassy, responding to a question by PTI on Pakistan given charge of the two committees, Tharoor said "it's a Taliban Committee these guys have got. I don't know what the feelings of the Afghans are about this, but there you are."
Tharoor said UNSC members get the monthly rotating presidency of the Council.
"It's as simple as that. There's nothing more than that. And many of these positions are rotational. There are a number of UN institutions and committees, and so one shouldn't exaggerate, all the members of the Council automatically belong to all these committees and chairmanship rotates."
He highlighted that there are various committees of the Security Council, such as one pursuant to resolution 1540 that deals with preventing non-state actors from acquiring, developing or using nuclear weapons.
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