India Reaffirms Commitment to UN Women, Peace, & Security Agenda

By: WE staff | Friday, 17 October 2025

• India endorses the UN Women, Peace, and Security agenda
• India organized the inaugural International Conference on Women Peacekeepers of the Global South
• Minister Jaishankar stated that peacekeeping is impossible without women

S. Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister, underscored India's role in the United Nations Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda by pointing out the efforts made by the country to promote women's involvement in peacekeeping missions.

He reminded that India organized the inaugural International Conference on Women Peacekeepers of the Global South and hosted participants from 35 nations and also the UN Women Military Officers Course in August 2025 with participants from 15 countries.

While addressing the chiefs of contributing countries to the UN peacekeeping forces at the United Nations Troop Contributing Countries Chiefs' Conclave (UNTCC) held in New Delhi, Jaishankar remarked, "It is no longer a question of whether women can do peacekeeping work, but rather whether peacekeeping work can be done without women."

He noted Indian women peacekeepers have made a demonstrable difference by building trust within communities and assisting at-risk communities particularly women and children.

In 2007, India had also been prepared to deploy an all-female contingent police unit to Liberia under the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). 

There are current opportunities for, and there will be future opportunities for, Indian female sense in various roles at the United Nations such as military observers, staff officers, contingent troops, medical officers, and police officers on duty with UN missions such as United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

Jaishankar then mentioned the WPS agenda that the UN Security Council launched in 2000, which purses to expand women's role in preventing and building peace in situations of conflict; to ensure women's protection from violence; and help women to lead in peacebuilding.

The agenda takes the form of four pillars: participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. The pillars are linked to ten Security Council resolutions that encourage gender equality throughout the conflict cycle.

The minister stressed India's perspective on international peacekeeping, based on the notion of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (The world is one family), and also mentioned the idea of working together internationally on interdependent global issues such as terrorism, epidemics, economic uncertainty, and climate change. He made the statement that addressing these threats requires a cooperative process through multilateral arrangements and ultimately the UN.

Looking back to the 80th UN General Assembly, Jaishankar commented that the UN's architecture continues to reflect the world as it was in 1945, and not as it will be in 2025.

He stated that it was time to reform the UN to make it more inclusive, democratic, participative, and representative of today's world as it retains legitimacy and credibility by including louder developing world and Global South voices.