Britain backs India's bid for UNSC permanent seat
Dated 2/11/2006
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Britain has backed India's candidature for the permanent seat in the expanded United Nations Security Council, expected to be taken up in the UN reforms process.
Supporting India's bid for a permanent seat in the coveted UNSC, visiting British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett today said that both the countries were 'natural partners' and had to jointly face several global issues. "The UK has, as I hope you all know, been at the forefront of course to India to have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council," Beckett said during a joint press conference with Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee at the Hyderabad House.
Beckett, who is on a six-day visit to India beginning Thursday, also said that India with a strong emerging economy has become an important and powerful country in the global arena. India along with Japan, Germany and Brazil - as part of the G4 group - has been campaigning for the much needed expansion of the UNSC. Beckett said that both India and the UK were facing the same problem of terrorism and were committed to fight the scourge together.
"Our shared concerns, shared flow of information and we have people working, with the relevant authorities in India to help prepare, as we all trying to do, for greater protection in attacks on mass transit infrastructure", she said. This comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit, to London where he and his British counterpart agreed to cooperate in combating terrorism.