'Old company' jibe at UN

In a veiled dig at the United Nations, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that it has become like an “old company”, which is not entirely keeping with the market but still occupying the space.

The Foreign Minister was speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave in Delhi on Sunday.

He highlighted the organisation’s decreasing relevance in addressing major global challenges in recent years, including the Covid pandemic and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Middle East.

“The United Nations is like an old company, not entirely keeping up with the market, but occupying the space,” Jaishankar said at the event.

“What you have today is, yes, there is a UN. At the end of the day, however suboptimal it is in functioning, it is still the only multilateral game in town. But when it doesn’t step up on key issues, countries figure out their own ways of doing it,” he added.