PM Narendra Modi pitches for UNSC seat

Also bats for the inclusion of Japan, Brazil and Germany

New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the G4 nations stood firm on ensuring and contributing to global peace and security, upping the ante for permanent seats on the high table of the UN Security Council for India, Japan, Brazil and Germany.

Indian PM Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New York. PicS/afp

“The UNSC must include the world’s largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents,” the Prime Minister said during the first G4 Summit here in over a decade. “We should aim to reform UNSC during its ongoing 70th session of the UN.”

The Prime Minister said the world today lived in a fundamentally different era from when the UN was born, faced with complex, and undefined challenges. “The subject of reforms in the UNSC has been focus of global attention for decades, but unfortunately without progress.”

He said the challenges and the threats were different today.

The meeting, hosted by India, was attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

The G4 countries rank among the top 10 economies in the world. They are elected for a two-year term on the Security Council as non-permanent members by their respective regional groups. India has served the council twice in the past.

Merkel said the G4 needs to try to find allies, talk to others to meet its goals, while Rousseff said results achieved so far have not been very substantial, calling for a better, concerted effort at sensitising the global community.

Google visit to be highlight of West Coast visit
SAN FRANCISCO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday acknowledged Google chief executive Sundar Pichai’s remarks that his company saw India as a key market and looked forward to the leader’s visit to his campus in San Jose.
“Thanks @sundarpichai for your message,” the Prime Minister tweeted on Saturday, ahead of the G4 Summit among India, Japan, Germany and Brazil. “I appreciate the role of @google in @_DigitalIndia and look forward to meeting you today,” he said.

In a Youtube channel post, Pichai had said earlier that Google was looking to renewing and strengthening its partnership with India, as it sees the country as a pivotal market in its global expansion plans. “We hope your (Modi’s) visit will energise people in the (Silicon) Valley, excite Indians all across the country and will renew and strengthen our partnership,” the newly appointed Indian-origin chief executive had said.

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