China backs India's bid for UNSC seat
Dated 10/1/2006
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Beijing China has assured India that it has not gone back on its support for New Delhi's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said on Tuesday.
"We were very happy that there was a reaffirmation of the support which was extended to India by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao when he visited India in April last year," Saran, who is in Beijing for the second round of India-China Strategic Dialogue, said.
"The Chinese side conveyed to us that there was no change in that position," Saran said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing.
Though China had initially backed India's bid, Beijing later became ambiguous about its support citing Japan with which Beijing's relationship has soured in recent times. India had joined hands with Brazil, Japan and Germany and formed the G4 to muster support for the UNSC bid.
Saran said he and Li discussed the UN reforms, especially the need to expand the UNSC and the decision to retable the G4 resolution, which China had vehemently opposed in 2005.
China, one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UNSC, had described the G4 draft resolution as an 'immature' plan. China had further said that it would vote against any Security Council expansion formula which could split the UN membership if such a proposal was put to a vote in the General Assembly.
"China is opposed to artificially setting a time limit for the reform of the Security Council," Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, had said in 2005.