File Photo: NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul
NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul today called for re-evaluating the United Nations, where the crucial veto is held by few countries despite changed global realities in the 21st century, and establishing a new Commonwealth Assembly to enhance its role.
"The UN has served a great purpose for the last 70 years but perhaps now it is a past relic whose structure and contribution needs to be re-evaluated," he said in his address titled 'The use of soft power to enhance Global Relations'.
"The organisation is made up of 193 member states, so there is no justification in today's world for the veto still being held by so few countries," he added.
India, along with Japan, Brazil and Germany, is pressing for a revamp of the United Nations Security Council and permanent membership of the body.
Speaking at an international symposium on 'Cultural Diplomacy in the Commonwealth' organised by the Institute of Cultural Diplomacy in the House of Lords, the Caparo Group chairman also proposed creation of a new Commonwealth Assembly to enhance the role of the 66-year-old institution.
"I believe that the cultural plinth on which the Commonwealth stands can be enhanced. To that end, and to maximise the value of the Commonwealth institution, I propose the creation of a Commonwealth Assembly," Paul said.
"A Commonwealth Assembly would be an ongoing deliberative body that would bring together leaders or their representatives together with some of the best Commonwealth talent.
"This would advance communications, enrich exchanges and enable the Commonwealth to do more than it has done in areas of international importance. It would enable the Commonwealth to act with much more impact on matters of world significance outside the Commonwealth," he said.
In reference to another collective of nations, the European Union, the senior peer stressed that Britain needs to decide whether "we are in or out".
"Perhaps the time has come for those who are already in the EU - and want to remain in it - to consolidate their position. I would suggest a period of six months for the present members to re-affirm their commitment to stay in the EU," he said.
He also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attempts at "cultural diplomacy" and called on other world leaders to follow his lead.
"The traditional approach of foreign offices and chancelleries, of strategic command centres, now needs to be supplemented and expanded and re-fashioned by public diplomacy and cultural outreach. I draw your attention to a very successful cultural diplomacy policy that the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has been vigorously promoting in the last year or so," he said.
"Modi seems to have concluded that the contemporary world is more susceptible to this approach and has been relentless in mobilising India's cultural strengths in his foreign policy. He has used public platforms all over the world and engaged in re-branding Indian diplomacy through such highly successful programmes as 'Make in India' economics.
"Lobbying the United Nations to declare a World Yoga Day and celebrating it around the world has probably done more for India?s image than missile development.
"Mobilising the overseas Indian community to this end recognises the importance of community-to-community relations and goes well beyond what official institutions can do. The world would be a better place if other leaders followed Mr Modi's example," he added.
Highlighting education as the key to "improving tolerance and understanding" between nations and building a global citizenship to tackle the world?s conflicts, Paul added: "As Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton for the last 16 years, I have seen the growth and the ways in which educational institutions can build international goodwill and contribute to improving relations between states.
"And the evidence is very clear ? international students studying alongside local students create the best kinds of global networks and prepare each other for a new kind of citizenship ? global citizenship. Building global citizenship, especially among young people, is probably the best insurance we can have against global disorder."