Collectivising South Asia's crown jewels, the troops the region contributes to UN peacekeeping forces around the world, will serve as an important step towards enhancing regional connectivity
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is high on the spirit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. The nashaa has caught his ministerial colleagues. His swearing-in ceremony was attended by Saarc+1 leaders. letters were exchanged with each of them and in some cases, gifts also. While Mr Modi chose Bhutan as his first port of call, Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s choice was Bangladesh. Mr Modi is expected to go to Kathmandu next month making it the first prime ministerial visit from India after IK Gujral in 1997. Ms Swaraj will also travel to Kathmandu to revive a 1991 vintage ministerial commission. At the Indian Space Research Organisation’s launch of foreign satellites by an Indian work-horse, Mr Modi gushed “dil maange more” while advocating a Saarc satellite. A new Saarc headquarters is reported to be coming up in New Delhi. Some of these initiatives are part of Mr Modi’s vision to make India strong by accelerating growth and development which can happen only if the neighbourhood is tranquil and the region, physically, emotionally and intellectually interlinked. Saarc is the least-connected regional organisation.
One small step towards regional connectivity could be in collectivising Saarc’s crown jewel, the United Nations Peacekeeping enterprise, an international experience that soldiers and policemen hanker for. Just last week, a major impasse over reimbursement UN Peacekeepers was resolved three days after the deadline of June 30 had passed. Three years ago at meetings of the Special Advisory Group established for review of ‘extra’ expenses for blue helmets, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan made their cases informally, speaking in one voice. It is not a day too soon for the neighbourhood troop-contributing countries to consider forming a regional consultative mechanism under Saarc for UN Peacekeeping.
Unfortunately, the Saarc charter excludes security issues though UN Peacekeeping is only soft security. UN Peacekeeping was later added to the UN Charter as it was initially not on it. On drugs and terrorism, there is a Saarc website and a counter-terrorism and piracy convention for intelligence sharing with a monitoring desk in the Maldives. No country should have any objection to starting a process for an institutionalised, consensual and cooperative framework to address UN Peacekeeping problems. This will help keep abreast with the changing dynamics of UN Peacekeeping given the new hybrid missions, declining resources, mounting risks and hazards and the further marginalisation of troop-contributing countries. Europe, Africa, latin America and even South Asia have regional or sub-regional cooperative institutions, optimising capacities and resources for regional and UN Peacekeeping.
Saarc’s contribution is exceptional — providing 35 per cent of all UN Peacekeeping troops. The soldiers excel not just in numbers but in quality too and are counted as high-value, high-asset troops and police from the developing world who empathise with the issues of intra-state conflicts in Africa where 80 per cent of UN Peacekeeping missions are committed. The all-women Indian police force deployed in liberia has been a big hit there since 2007. Inspired, a number of liberian women have joined their country’s police force. Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri lanka, in that order, are leading police and troop contributors. With civil wars in Sri lanka and Nepal terminated, and both countries in a post-conflict situation, vastly experienced soldiers are available for UN Peacekeeping.
Stories of cooperation among Saarc troop-contributing countries are legendary. In Somalia, Indian Air Force’s attack-helicopters rescued Pakistani troops from an adverse ground situation. They were the last troops to leave Somalia with the Pakistanis exiting on Indian naval ships. In Congo, Bangladesh peacekeepers in helicopters went to the aid of a Pakistani post, guided by the beleaguered company commander, with Indian Air Force attack-helicopters in close support. Heads of mission and force commanders have found their support staff from one another’s countries, so deep and versatile is the regional cooperation in UN Peacekeeping.
The vision for regional cooperation in UN Peacekeeping is designed to strengthen the voice of Saarc troop-contributing and police-contributing countries and allow for a more effective disposition in bargaining over strategic, doctrinal and policy issues at the UN, exchanging best practices and engaging in academic and legal research. In short, it is time to bring troop-contributing countries into the decision-making loop — be it mandate crafting, high appointments at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations or other operational and logistics issues. Breaking the monopoly in decision-making of the P5 and other developed countries, who are the principal money-givers for UN Peacekeeping, like the US, EU, Japan, South Korea is also needed. While the developing countries provide the troops, the developed write the cheques. China is the only P5 which sends troops but only in non-combat roles. Developed countries do not have the stomach to take casualties.
Regionalising the UN Peacekeeping effort has to happen at two levels: UN Peacekeeping activities and academic research. For the first, the key is evolving an institutional, regional, consultative mechanism among Saarc member states that will project the group’s views at the levels of Foreign Ministers at the UN, Saarc Secretary Generals and respective country’s Permanent Missions at the UN. Another mechanism would be for initial discussion on mission mandates by the UN Security Council in coordination with Permanent Missions at New York. Also, the comparative advantages of South Asian troop-contributing countries in developing UN training modules for operations and exchanging best practices for preparation and training in UN Peacekeeping must be leveraged.
The academic research work is self-explanatory. It will build a peacekeeping research network to foster regional cooperation. Some preliminary work has already begun at the South Asian University in New Delhi where a regional conference of troop-contributing countries — including civil, military and police personnel — was held in March this year. In the developed world, vast expertise is available on the intricacies of UN Peacekeeping which is a eight billion dollar industry.
Confidence-building measures, like the regional consultative mechanism on UN Peacekeeping, will make a good start at the next Saarc summit in November at Kathmandu. What a great asset a South Asian regional peacekeeping force will be in the future, given its composition of the finest and most highly-rated UN Peacekeepers. Maldives and Bhutan, which are not troop-contributing countries at present, should join in. Maldives could join a Sri lankan or Pakistani contingent while Nepal can collaborate with an Indian. A former Saarc Secretary General has said that in 2011, an Eminent Persons Group did open the door for including UN Peacekeeping in the Saarc charter. This column is a gentle reminder to the Saarc Programmes Committee meeting next month, prior to the Kathmandu summit. The Modi Saarc mantra is needed.