Presidency Of The UN Security Council:
India has assumed Presidency of the UN security council. The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the Member States’ names.
- Prime Minister Modi virtually presided over the Council meeting. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to do so.
- Last year when the UN celebrated the 75th year of its foundation, India was elected to the Council along with Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway. India began its eighth term on January 1, 2021.
- Since all other countries come after India sequentially, it gives India another chance to assume the presidency in December next year.
- India is a founding member of the UN. That India signed the Charter of the United Nations along with 50 other countries in 1945 even before gaining independence is a measure of its credentials—millennial civilisations, multi-faceted diversities and peaceful vocation.
- Vijaya Laxmi Pandit was elected president of the eight-session of the UN General Assembly in 1953, the first woman to head the organisation.
- Since the onset of its peacekeeping mission in 1948, India has sent contingents on 49 occasions, contributed close to 200,000 troops, and in 2007 had the unique distinction of deploying the first all-women peacekeeping force to Liberia.
