PM Voices Piracy, Climate Risks To Sea Trade At UN Security Council
PM Modi in his virtual address said that we must save our maritime environment. and we must stop plastic waste. We must act against over-fishing. We must encourage responsible maritime connectivity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a UN Security Council debate this evening, said barriers must be removed for trade on sea routes, which are currently being misused for piracy.
He became the first Indian PM to chair a UNSC debate. “We must save our maritime environment. We must stop plastic waste. We must act against over-fishing. We must encourage responsible maritime connectivity,” PM Modi said in his virtual address.
Taking over from France, India assumed the rotating Presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of August.
This was the first time that maritime security was discussed as an exclusive agenda item in such a high level open debate.
In 2015, PM Modi put forward the vision of SAGAR – an acronym for ‘Security and Growth for all in the Region’. It focused on cooperative measures for sustainable use of the oceans, and provides a framework for a safe, secure, and stable maritime domain in the region.
In 2019, at the East Asia Summit, this initiative was further elaborated through the Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative (IPOI) with a focus on seven pillars of maritime security.
This is India’s tenth tenure at the UN Security Council. So far it has been President of the body nine times: June 1950, September 1967, December 1972, October 1977, February 1985, October 1991, December 1992, August 2011, and November 2012.