India’s victory at ICJ vote a blow to UK’s influence

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In what is being seen as a massive blow to the UK’s global stature, India’s candidate on Monday was re-elected to the last seat of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after the British candidate pulled out following a bitterly-fought contest.

This makes it the first time in the 71-year history of the ICJ that the UK will not be represented on the bench of the world court.

India’s nominee Dalveer Bhandari received 183 of the 193 votes in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and secured all the 15 votes in the UN Security Council (UNSC) after separate but simultaneous elections were held at UN headquarters in New York.

Dalveer Bhandari. /Wikimedia Commons Photo

Bhandari was earlier locked in an acrimonious fight with the UK’s Christopher Greenwood for re-election to the prestigious world court, with 11 rounds of voting unable to end the impasse. As per the ICJ statute, the winning candidate has to get an absolute majority in both the UNSC and UNGA.

With Bhandari consistently garnering nearly two-thirds of the votes in the UNGA while Greenwood being backed by nine of the 15-member UNSC in all the previous rounds, the elections faced stalemate.

Christopher Greenwood. /Wikimedia Common

In a dramatic development just minutes ahead of the 12th round of voting on Monday, the UK’s mission to the UN announced Greenwood’s withdrawal from the race for the Hague-based ICJ, thus paving the way for Bhandari’s re-election.

"The UK has concluded that it is wrong to continue to take up the valuable time of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly with further rounds of elections," the UK’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, wrote in identical letters to the presidents of UNGA and UNSC.

"In taking this step, we have borne in mind the close relationship that the United Kingdom and India have always enjoyed and will continue to enjoy…," the letter said, adding: "If the UK could not win in this runoff, then we are pleased that it is a close friend like India that has done so instead. We will continue to cooperate closely with India, here in the United Nations and globally."

'Triumph for diplomacy'

Hailing the final outcome as a "triumph for diplomacy," India’s former junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor, who served as the UN under-secretary-general from 2002 to 2007, tweeted: "Triumph for diplomacy: UK withdraws its candidate from the contest for a seat at the @CIJ_ICJ , citing friendly relations with India. This was the best way for the standoff to end. Congratulations to all involved in ensuring this result."

This is perhaps the first time in UN history that the candidacy of a permanent member of the UN Security Council was challenged, and effectively defeated.

"The turn of events highlights two things – India’s increasing ability to rally support on the world stage and the growing thrust towards reforming institutions of global governance, in this case legal. The fact that there is a missing representation from the P5 [UNSC’s five permanent members] in the ICJ for the first time has set a precedent which is no less than a milestone," Ravish Bhatia, Yenching Scholar and international relations expert at Peking University, told CGTN.

A screenshot of a tweet by Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, celebrating Dalveer Bhandari's re-election to the International Court of Justice.

Waning influence

While the outcome is being seen in New Delhi as a diplomatic victory and an acknowledgement of its stature as a rising global power, it is being described by the British media as a "humiliating blow" to the UK’s status.

"The decision to bow to mounting opposition within the UN general assembly is a humiliating blow to British international prestige and an acceptance of a diminished status in international affairs,” said British daily The Guardian.

"This is the second time the UK has been humiliated at the UN in recent months, amid signs that some EU nations no longer feel the need to automatically support an isolationist former partner," the report said citing a June UNGA vote that saw the UK being defeated 94-15 over the disputed legal status of British hold of the Chagos Islands, which was challenged by Mauritius.

On Monday, in further sign of its waning influence, the UK suffered two more diplomatic losses, with Amsterdam winning the bid to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Paris winning the right to host the European Banking Authority (EBA). Both the European Union institutions are currently headquartered in London.

Luke McDonagh, a constitutional law lecturer at the University of London, in a tweet, called the ICJ exit along with the loss of two EU agencies "an extraordinary day of loss of British influence."

Bitter fight

A conference officer collects ballots from Security Council members at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, on November 20, 2017. /UN Photo

The race for the final vote witnessed a bitter fight with the UK repeatedly thwarting India’s contention to the ICJ position in the UNSC despite Bhandari having an overwhelming support in the UNGA.

In the 11th round of voting at the UNGA last week, Bhandari secured 121 votes (128 is a two-thirds majority in the 198-member global body) with Greenwood getting only 68 votes.

There were reports suggesting the UK was planning to invoke a mysterious clause to stall the 12th round of voting. The UK is learnt to have proposed "an arcane mechanism of Joint Conference, comprising three members each from GA and SC, as a substitute to continued voting," and in the process invalidate popular vote for the Indian candidate, The Times of India reported citing UN sources.

Syed Akbaruddin (center), India's Permanent Representative to the UN, casts his country’s ballot in the General Assembly, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, on November 20, 2017. /UN Photo

This move was slammed by India, a strong proponent of structural reform of the UN, as an attempt to bypass the will of the overwhelming majority of UN members.

Tharoor said that Security Council permanent members’ "stubborn support for the British flew in the face of the expressed will of the majority of member states in the General Assembly," in an interview to India’s WION news channel.

"Those who talk of bringing the UN and updating it to the 21st Century world cannot look back to the toolkit of 100 years ago and try to take out a tool which has never been used in the history of the UN and perhaps for valid reasons," India’s UN permanent representative Syed Akbaruddin said.

The international resentment in the UN of the dominance and privileges of the P5 – the US, Britain, France, China and Russia – also worked in India’s favor as Bhandari’s vote share kept increasing at the general assembly with each passing round.

Sebastiano Cardi (left), Italy's Permanent Representative to the UN and President of the Security Council for November, chairs the Security Council’s meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, on November 20, 2017. /UN Photo

"Britain fought hard to win the seat for the first 11 rounds and even tried to convene a joint conference between UNSC and UNGA under article 12 (1) of the ICJ statute. For the first 11 rounds, India received over half of the total votes in the UNGA in favor of Dalveer Bhandari. In case of a 12th round, had India managed to receive more than two-third of the total votes in the UNGA, it would have implied a lack of confidence in Christopher Greenwood at the international assembly. It is more likely that the UK withdrew its bid for this reason," reasoned Bhatia of Peking University.

"The time has come to move away from supporting the entrenched privilege of the established powers of the Council and making gesture towards a more democratic, a more accountable and therefore a more legitimate and more representative vote in the General Assembly," Tharoor, the former UN under-secretary-general, said.

Post-Brexit factor

India is viewed a major trading partner for the UK in the post-Brexit scenario and there were calls to review New Delhi’s membership in the Commonwealth if London exploited its status as a permanent member to defend its untenable position.

With the UK finally conceding defeat, the likely impact on bilateral ties has been effectively contained. However, the global influence of the erstwhile colonial power has been significantly diminished.

"Post Brexit, the ambiguity surrounding the final deal that Britain manages to negotiate with the EU has meant that it has lesser scope to make diplomatic maneuvers on the world stage. It is also an indication of the improved standing of the Global 77 (G77)," Bhatia said, referring to the coalition of developing nations at the UN.

(With input from Alok Gupta)