Set up new missions in some 40 countries: Parliamentary panel tells MEA

The committee said in an earlier report that India didn’t have resident missions in 48 UN member states. Subsequently, the external affairs ministry identified 11 countries where missions could be set up

India should establish missions in some 40 United Nations (UN) member states where it currently does not have a diplomatic presence in order to give impetus to the country’s aspiration to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a parliamentary panel said on Thursday.

(Representative Photo)

The parliamentary committee on external affairs, in a report submitted to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, acknowledged that opening new missions or posts is a “time-taking exercise requiring internal planning and approvals for logistics, deployment, infrastructure as well as coordination and liaisoning with the host government.”

However, the panel reiterated that the external affairs ministry should “prepare a roadmap and act sincerely towards establishing resident missions” in UN member states where India currently doesn’t have a presence. This is because the missions will play a crucial role in “giving impetus to India’s aspiration to be a permanent member of [the] United Nations Security Council”, it said.

The committee said in an earlier report that India didn’t have resident missions in 48 UN member states. Subsequently, the external affairs ministry identified 11 countries where missions could be set up.

The ministry informed the panel that the union cabinet in March 2018 gave approval for opening 18 new missions in Africa in a phased manner. Following this, during 2018-2021, India established its presence in 14 missions in Guinea, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Cameroon, Eritrea, Eswatini, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Togo, Liberia and Mauritania, the ministry informed.

According to MEA, personnel were deployed to Chad and are waiting to travel to assume charge, and efforts are being made to operationalise the missions in Somalia, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Three new missions in Estonia, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic became operational between January-February 2022, it informed.

The cabinet also approved opening a new consulate at Addu in the Maldives and a new mission.