New Delhi
7 December 2005
Minutes after his resignation was forwarded to
the President, Mr Natwar Singh dwelled on the United Nations and
diplomacy to observe that there was a democracy deficit in the UN
Security Council and the problem was "fundamentally generic, not
institutional."
The occasion was the release of the book titled "The Horseshoe Table: An
inside view of the UN Security Council," written by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's Special Envoy to West Asia Chinmaya R Gharekhan.
Delivering the key note address at the function to which he was invited as
a "Union minister," which was later corrected to read "Member of
Parliament," Mr Singh said there was no "level playing field" in the world
body as the United States has become the preeminent player in the
"power game."
Referring to the US and the Iraq war, Mr Singh recalled pictures that
showed "Rumsfeld embracing Saddam in '83" and suggested "Pax
Planetica" as an alternative to redeeming the world body's prestige.
A vintage Natwar Singh also said the "difficulty is within the United States
system [where a] group of people [are] fundamentally hostile to UN." He
recalled how he raised the matter with President George Bush who, h
observed, was "quite dismissive of UN."
He rounded off his speech by mentioning that "diplomacy has suffered"
because of the advent of 'sound byte' journalism. Referring to the media,
he said, "Intrusion by media has ensured the demise of diplomatic
reticence."
No comments:
Post a Comment