Guterres also brought up the issue of the international debt burden faced by some countries, notably Pakistan, which he called “a victim of the manmade disaster of a morally bankrupt global financial system”.

This month External Affairs Minister presided over two high-level meetings of the Council covered by India on reforming multinational organisations including the Council and on fighting terrorism, both of which have proved popular.

The complex situation in Myanmar requires “quiet and patient diplomacy”, Kamboj said. The welfare of the people of Myanmar is of “utmost priority” and at “the core of our efforts” there, she said.

India is pressing for Council reforms, which have stalled for decades, and lobbying for a permanent seat. As its president this month, India convened a ministerial-level meeting of the Council on reforming the UN which put a spotlight on the Council’s basic architecture of permanent membership mired in post-World War II geopolitics which has changed dramatically in 75 years.

Known as the Convention on Biodiversity, the agreement was announced after hectic negotiations early Monday towards the end of 15th UN conference on biodiversity in Montreal.

She said, “We the victims of 26/11 Mumbai attacks continue to wait for justice. As the sponsors of these dastardly attacks remain free even after 14 years. “Too many lives have been lost. Too many children have been orphaned”.

It is because about a decade ago when Sanaulah was a minister, Hillary Clinton who was visiting Pakistan warned him about terrorism and said that if you have snakes in your backyard, you can't expect them to bite only your neighbours because eventually, they will bite the people who keep them, Jaishankar said.

Before Jaishankar spoke, Anjali Vijay Kulthe, a nurse from Cama and Albless Hospital in Mumbai, told the Council about her face-to-face encounter with Pakistan-based terrorists on 26/11 and how she worked to save mothers, mothers-to-be and newborns at the medical centre.

“Recognizing that diversity is one of India’s greatest assets, he strove for harmonious relations between religions, cultures and communities”, Guterres added.

India is using its prerogative as the president of the Council – in the last month of its two-year elected membership – to take the long-delayed and contentious issue right to its chamber.

After abstaining, India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj called the move a “mockery” of the UN sanctions on terrorist groups and warned, “Such exemptions must not facilitate 'mainstreaming' of terror entities in the political space in our region”.

“We don't need to be told what to do on democracy”, she said here on Tuesday when an Italian journalist raised the criticism that press freedom was being eroded in the country. 

At the Security Council, Kamboj is the chair of its high-profile Counter-Terrorism Committee and organised in India a rare special session outside the headquarters to bring home the dangers of international terrorism.

India last presided over the Council in August last year when T.S. Tirumurti was the permanent representative and before that in 2011 and 2012 during current Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s tenure as the envoy to the UN.

Several countries have pulled out of or announced plans to withdraw from the peacekeeping operations in Mali. MINUSMA is one of the deadliest operations having claimed the lives of 292 peacekeepers.