After a gap of 19 years, India was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, a position which would help it push more aggressively for the reform of the world body's top organ. India secured an emphatic win, with 187 of the 191 member states in the General Assembly backing its candidature and one member state abstaining from the vote.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India has friendly ties with both the countries.
Pitching for a greater role for India globally, former US President George W Bush favoured its entry into the expanded UN Security Council, which he acknowledged had got caught into political complications over questions like size and criteria.
A genuine attempt was made to reset relations in a positive way, signalling a stepping back from the brink of conflict, much to the relief of the world, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Amid the US-led moves to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear to President Barack Obama that India was opposed to any sanctions that would target common people of that country.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy made a strong pitch for India's inclusion as a permanent member of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, which he said needs to be expanded to make it more inclusive."Did you know that India... in 30 years time... the world's most populous nation, doesn't have a permanent seat on the Security Council?" said the French president, hosted by Columbia University as part of the World Leaders Forum.
An Indian colonel was injured in fresh firing in the troubled Malakal region in South Sudan
Former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Karl F Inderfurth, has told the US Congress that Washington should publicly support India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, arguing that the India's case has never been stronger.
The Quad has come of age and its agenda covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes it a force for global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the first summit of the coalition. In his opening remarks, he also talked about shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned the suicide attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul in which 41 people, including four Indian nationals, were killed and expressed determination to root out the scourge of terrorism.
While the US stayed away, the remaining 14 members voted in favour of the resolution which came after three days of intensive negotiations.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the President of the UN Security Council Ruhakana Rugunda, Israel accused an Indian contingent of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of having done nothing to prevent the demonstrators from crossing the border and even cooperating with the group, The Jerusalem Post reported.
"Lashkar-e-Tayiba tactics is quite obvious. It is trying to increase tensions between India and Pakistan at a time when they and their associates are particularly under pressure in western Pakistan," Barrett said in at press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The government of Punjab province has decided not to close welfare organisations run by the Jamaat, which was declared a front for the Lashker-e-Tayiba terror group by the UN Security Council soon after the Mumbai attacks. The provincial government has appointed doctors in Jamaat dispensaries and decided to retain the old teaching staff in its schools, television channels reported.
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."
LeT commander Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil was named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the Department of State.
The Pakistan government has blocked a resolution moved in the UN Security Council for imposing sanctions against former Inter-Services-Intelligence chief retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul over his alleged links with al-Qaeda and Taliban, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday.
President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday indicated that she will seek China's support for India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council during her six-day visit to the country, the first by an Indian head of state in a decade.
The remarks by China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Geng Shuang, came during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday after the sudden and rapid takeover of the Afghanistan government by the Taliban insurgents.
David Cameron, the man most likely to take over as the next Prime Minister of Britain, has promised to forge a "new special relationship" with India and support India's bid for a seat in the UN Security council.
Securing a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council is India's top priority for the year and it seems "eminently doable" with India putting a concerted effort, Indian envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri has said.
With the US President Barack Obama presiding over a key session of UN Security Council on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament on Friday, America has asked all countries to join the Non Proliferation Treaty and hoped that the powerful body of the UN would endorse its call for world without nuclear weapons.
Three people were killed and over 20 others injured in a bomb blast outside the house of the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed in Lahore on Wednesday, the police said.
UN Security Council is witnessing an acrimonious wrangling over the action it should take on the Georgian conflict, after a fresh draft resolution introduced by Russia on the issue was promptly opposed by the United States.
Pressing for "actual negotiations" on the issue of UN Security Council expansion, India has asked the General Assembly for discussions to be held in an interactive format, as representatives of the world body met in New York to launch parleys on reforms.
"The United States believes that the long-term legitimacy and viability of the UN Security Council depends on its reflecting the world of the 21st century," said Gordon Duguid, the State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman, onThursday.
Without naming Pakistan, he said there are some who are trying to project an 'alarmist approach' to the situation in Kashmir, which is far from the ground realities.
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley also called on all countries to sever economic and diplomatic ties with Pyongyang to curb its nuclear programme.
"There was a resolution in the United Nations Security Council. If Pakistan had not taken steps under that, then they could have declared Pakistan a terrorist state. They could have crippled Pakistan's economy," Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said.
The Pakistan government today banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front organisation for the outlawed LeT blamed for the Mumbai attacks, after the UN Security Council declared it a terrorist outfit and sealed its nine offices in Sindh apart from rounding up over 20 of its activists.
The US said the removal of the ban on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation would jeopardise Pakistan's ability to meet its commitments to fight terrorism.
A CPI-M member in the Lok Sabha,on Wednesday asked the government to condemn a United States State Department statement that India tell Iran to 'meet the requirements of the UN Security Council' on its nuclear programme during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads upcoming visit.
Welcoming President Pratibha Patil on her three-day state visit to this Latin American country, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said India should become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. She said that Chile wanted a more transparent Security Council. The comments from the Chilean President came after the signing of four agreements with the visiting President.The two leaders discussed international affairs during their one-to-one meeting.
Traders are 'chowkidar' (watchman) of Indian economy, CAIT secretary general said.
This is the latest in a string of tests by North Korea in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
Amid deepening concerns in China over the regrouping of the ETIM, blamed by Beijing for all the violent attacks in its volatile Xinjiang province and elsewhere in the country, Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Mullah Baradar at Tianjin and sought to prevail on him to build a 'positive image and establish a broad and inclusive political structure that suits Afghanistan's national realities'.
"The 21st century world cannot be governed with the institutions of the 20th century," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. "Let today's major powers and the powers of tomorrow unite to shoulder together the responsibilities their influence give them in world affairs," Sarkozy, who is the current president of the EU, said.
"We have a strong view that there should be Security Council reform of the United Nations, that the Security Council should reflect the modern world, which is why we've suggested that both India and Japan should become permanent members of a reformed United Nations Security Council," the Australian foreign minister said.
India has reiterated its reluctance to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty despite United States President Barack Obama's call for all nations to sign the disputed pact.
The United States, Blinken said, is committed to looking at everything done from day one through the present and draw lessons from it.
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