Brown backs India's bid for UNSC

Brown backs India's bid for UNSC

L'Aquila (Italy), July 8

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090709/main3.htm

India's bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council got a boost when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his support for New Delhi's demand to restructure the UNSC.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a bilateral meeting with his British counterpart in this Italian mountain town. The meeting lasted 45 minutes. Singh met Brown on the sidelines of the G-8 summit.

Sources said the two leaders discussed issues of bilateral and multilateral importance, besides the areas where they could cooperate mutually, including terrorism. They confirmed that both the leaders discussed the current global economic meltdown.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had said yesterday, "India has become such an important and central part of the global infrastructure that just about everything that Britain wants to achieve internationally requires us to work in partnership with India."

India has again broached the subject of UNSC's expansion at the G-8 summit this year.

2. France backs India's bid for permanent UNSC seat

PTI | New Delhi

http://www.dailypioneer.com/188007/France-backs-Indias-bid-for-permanent-UNSC-seat.html

Strongly backing India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, France today said this was absolutely necessary if the global body wanted to remain a "legitimate" place for handling peace and security crisis.

Noting that the last reforms to the Security Council were made in the sixties, Ambassador of France to India Jerome Bonnafont said "if we want the Security Council to remain a legitimate place for handling peace and security crisis in the world, it is absolutely
necessary to have India as well as couple of others as permanent members."

He said the reform was also imperative "in order to avoid unilateralism and to create an environment where countries sit together to address the threats to peace".

However, the French Ambassador here said it was a very difficult reform which needs two-third majority of the UN Assembly besides the five permanent members and "there is a group of countries" who do not want this reform but France was determined to push for it.

India has been making a strong pitch for UNSC reforms and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, currently attending the G-8 Summit in Rome, maintain that "the UNSC has not changed at all and its present structure poses serious problems of legitimacy."

"The system of two-tiered membership, which gives a veto to the five permanent members i.e. The nations that emerged victorious after the Second World War, is clearly anachronistic," Singh said in an article in the compendium on contemporary global issues brought out for the Summit

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Expand The Circle
10 Jul 2009, 0000 hrs IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/EDITORIAL-COMMENT-Expand-The-Circle/articleshow/4759119.cms

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been doing some plain speaking lately. He did not mince words when he met Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari in Russia last month. Now, he has firmly stated India's case for inclusion in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a permanent member and for a greater role in international economic groupings on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Italy. Singh has pointed out the obvious by saying that the current configuration of the UNSC is outdated. His call to the G8 countries to be more cohesive and inclusive also has merit.

The structure of most influential international forums be it the UN, IMF or the World Bank does not reflect an altered world order, where emerging economies wield significant clout. China, India, Brazil and South Africa, for instance, are no longer marginal players on the global economic and political stage.

At a time when the world is reeling under a severe economic crisis, it is India and China that are tipped to drive the global economic recovery. In fact, the IMF and World Bank have both upped the growth estimates for these countries recently. In such a scenario, it is hard to argue against a greater role and representation for these countries at the global high table.

However, there are countries which continue to oppose the expansion of the G8 and the UNSC. Pakistan and China do not want India seated permanently at the UNSC, though reports from Italy suggest that China might be softening its stance. Japan resists the expansion of the G8 and sees itself as a better Asian candidate for a UNSC seat. This is where Indian diplomacy will have to deliver, by persuading critics to see the benefits of including India.

The UK has unequivocally backed India's UNSC aspirations. Meanwhile, France is keen that the G8 is expanded to G13, by making India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico full members. The US has so far been ambivalent towards India's candidature. New Delhi must work closely with Washington to press its case.

The need to restructure the international financial architecture is greater now than ever. As this current financial crisis has shown, emerging economies have a crucial role to play in stabilising the global marketplace, and it is only sensible that they have a greater say in bodies such as the IMF and World Bank. Simultaneously, the global political framework must be revisited. Responsible powers like India, Brazil and South Africa can contribute greatly to effective decision-making, be it on climate change, global security or economic issues. It's time for present members to throw open the doors of their anachronistic clubs