India seeks broad consensus in UNSC

India is working to build a broad consensus among UN member states beyond the Security Council on the issue of international terror, including blacklisting of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, under Security Council Resolution 1267 ahead of the March 13 deadline and has received support from Australia and Bangladesh in its endeavour.

While Australia and Bangladesh are non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, the two have decided to co-sponsor the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Masood Azhar listing as part of their efforts to fight terror globally, ET has learnt.

Australia has been seeking to expand its strategic partnership with India amid Chinese ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region and Delhi-Dhaka ties are closest since 1971. In fact, addressing Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers’ meet on March 1-2, Bangladesh foreign minister called for zero tolerance against terror.


While there is widespread support from the five permanent and 10 non-permanent members of UNSC for France-initiated resolution amid suspense maintained by China, India is working back-channels to get maximum co-sponsors for the resolution from members who are currently not part of the UNSC, ET has learnt.

India is hoping to get co-sponsors for the resolution from UN member states from Africa and Latin America, according to well-informed sources. These member states are being sensitised about the menace of cross-border terror, terror financing and terror networks.

The UNSC sanctions committee chair, currently Indonesia, has notified that unless it hears to the contrary by Wednesday, the Security Council will take it that the members of the Sanctions Committee have no objection to Azhar’s addition to the 1267 ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List.