India and Japan join forces to reform UN structure and uphold global order

Tokyo: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India and Japan, as two key players in Asia's multipolarity, are working together to make the UN structure more relevant and reflective of the current global situation. He said that this would ensure that the world remains committed to freedom, transparency, and a rules-based order.

Jaishankar, who is on a four-day visit to South Korea and Japan, also said that the two countries would demonstrate their mutual support for their common objective through various partnerships and initiatives.

Speaking at the first Raisina Roundtable here, the minister described the United Nations as the "most universal expression of global" and stressed the need for reform in the global body.

He said that the UN's "reform is of paramount importance. As fellow members of the G4 grouping, India and Japan are striving to make the UN structures more contemporary."

He said that this was a difficult challenge, but one that they had to overcome as two powers that are essential for multipolarity in Asia. He also said that it was in their shared interest that the world maintains a balance in favour of freedom, openness, transparency, and a rules-based order."

He noted that there was a growing demand to expand the number of permanent members in the Security Council to match the modern global reality, with India, Brazil, South Africa, Germany and Japan being strong candidates.

He said that India and Japan had to face the reality that the world was now more unstable, uncertain, unpredictable and open-ended.

He said that countries had to deal with this from the "national perspectives as well as from the point of view of their own relationship".

He observed that it had become much harder to reach a consensus among more actors on the global stage, due to the chaos in the world, as they did not agree on common positions.

He said that this was reflected in multilateralism, especially the UN, which was both a result and a reason for this. He said that, as a consequence, countries were increasingly turning to like-minded partners who came together for a specific purpose.

He said that India and Japan were natural partners in a world that was moving towards "re-globalisation". He said that the two countries also had basic similarities, being democracies and market economies.

The Raisina Roundtable is a crucial step towards enhancing track 2 exchanges between India and Japan, the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said in a statement before Jaishankar's visit.

Jaishankar's visit and meetings in Tokyo will offer strategic direction to India's functional cooperation in various fields, boost bilateral ties, and set the agenda for future cooperation, it said.

(With inputs from PTI)