United Nations, December 2
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will inaugurate a bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the United Nations on December 14, marking the arrival of the Mahatma at UN’s headquarters during India’s Presidency of the powerful 15-nation Security Council for the month of December.
India on Thursday assumed the monthly rotating Presidency of the Security Council, the second after August 2021 that India is presiding over the Council during its two-year tenure as an elected UNSC member.
The bust of Mahatma Gandhi will be placed in the “prestigious” North Lawn of the UN building, which is the first time that a sculpture of the Mahatma will be installed in the UNHQ here.
The simple ceremony will take place in the presence of UNSC members, including the five incoming new Council members – Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland.
The bust, made by renowned Indian sculptor Padma Shri awardee Ram Sutar, who has also designed the ‘Statue of Unity’, will be a gift from India and will be installed in the UN headquarters, which proudly displays gifts and artefacts from around the world.
India’s 2021-2022 term on the Council ends on December 31, with Ruchira Kamboj, India’s first woman Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, sitting in the President’s seat at the powerful horseshoe table for the month.
Addressing reporters here on the Indian presidency and the monthly programme of work, Kamboj said that apart from two signature events chaired by Jaishankar in the Council on December 14 and 15 on reformed multilateralism and counter-terrorism, there will also be two side events coinciding with India’s presidency.
“The first will mark the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi at the United Nations,” Kamboj said.
