India seeks greater role for troops contributing countries in UN peacekeeping missions

United Nations: India has sought an enhanced role for troops contributing countries in the decision-making process of UN peacekeeping missions.

The Military Adviser at India's UN Mission, Colonel Sandeep Kapoor said the current system of excluding the troop and police-contributing countries (T/PCCs) from the process of framing the mandates is not sustainable.

"The UN Security Council needs to revisit the way mandates are designed," Colonel Kapoor said.

India is one of the largest contributors of troops and police to UN peacekeeping missions.

In his address to the UN Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping Reform, Colonel Kapoor said, "It is a great irony that troops contributing countries which provide their troops to execute the mandates and the troops on ground who lay down their lives to fulfil these mandates have no say in the process of formulation of the mandate."

"The current approach is not sustainable, Colonel Kapoor said in his remarks on Tuesday.

"It is hence an inescapable requirement to incorporate the T/PCCs in the decision making and mandate formulation from the very onset, " the Indian official said.

They also need to ensure more effective triangular cooperation between the T/PCCs, Secretariat and Security Council on important policy and doctrinal issues being formulated in the field of peacekeeping, he said.

Noting that today's peacekeeping operations pose complex challenges, Colonel Kapoor said that non-state actors have become the major players in many of these conflicts.

Today's peacekeeping requires a political consensus among Security Council members, Troop Contributors and Secretariat on the cost, limits and dangers of operations in high-risk environments, he said.