India has demanded that the principle of "protection of civilians" must be applied in a uniform manner to all parties to a conflict, pointing out that the UNSC failure to enforce accountability of armed groups has served to exacerbate the situation in several instances.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday accused the United States of killing people in "large numbers and in organised ways" in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan and also blamed the UNSC for the crisis in the Middle East.
India and five Central Asian countries on Thursday decided to establish a joint working group on Afghanistan at the senior officials' level, ministry of external affairs secretary (West) Reenat Sandhu said.
The India delegation flagged concerns over the possible implication of the Taliban's capture of power for the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir as there are apprehensions about spill-over of terrorist activities from Afghanistan to the union territory, the sources said.
Pak rejected the world body's move as a "victory for India and validation of its stance" as projected by the Indian media.
The ministers, including Krishna, also reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and to increased participation of developing countries in the decision-making bodies of multilateral organizations and institutions.
Pakistan's Islamic alliance condemned the decision by the referral of Iran's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council.
Britain has proposed that a meeting of the UNSC be convened during next month's high-level summit to discuss on punishing those who incite terrorism, with each nation's leader sitting around the council table, diplomats said.
He said G-4, the group comprising Germany, Japan, Brazil and India, should be credited with putting forward the UNSC reforms, including expansion of the security council, on agenda of the UN and it could not be reversed.
"China has been promoting peace and stability in this region. We hope that Pakistan and India will maintain friendly relations," he told a media briefing in Beijing.
The proposal calls for two seats each for Africa and Asia, one for Latin American and Caribbean states and one for Western European and other states.
India, together with Japan, Brazil and Germany, nicknamed the Group of Four -- is lobbying for a permanent Security Council seat, and the quartet has circulated a revised draft proposal that would expand the body from 15 to 25 members.
President A P J Abdul on Friday made a strong pitch for India getting a permanent membership of an enlarged United Nations Security Council.
In his hard-hitting maiden address to an informal session of the 192-member Assembly on reform of the 15-member Council, Indian ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri lambasted a 'small group' of countries for trying to derail the process by insisting that expansion be limited to non-permanent category.
An agreement between India and Pakistan, however tenuous, has its own meaning and impact. We have not heard the last word about the ceasefire agreement, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
India on Thursday said Russia had not made any mediation offer to it to resolve Indo-Pak issues, and asserted that Moscow was "well aware" of New Delhi's position of bilateral resolution of all such matters in a terror-free environment.
India abstained from a procedural vote taken in the United Nations Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border.
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously voted to bring to an end the authorised international military action in Libya on October 31, following the death of Muammar Gaddafi that brought an end to the bloody conflict in the country. The resolution passed on Thursday said that the liberation of the North African country after Gaddafi's death offers better prospects for a "democratic, peaceful and prosperous future".
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.
"If we have to recognise a government, the first thing is that we will need to wait until the government is formed," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
The United Nations Security Council's sanctions committee has not received any petition from Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for Lashkar-e-Tayiba, to reconsider the decision declaring it as a terrorist group, a top official said on Thursday. Reports from Pakistan had said that the JUD is appealing the decision but Coordinator of Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Committee Richard Barrett said no such petition has been received.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday made a powerful call for early reform and expansion of the United Nations Security Council "to reflect contemporary reality" and asked nations not to allow the global economic slowdown to trigger protectionism through various barriers.
The United States welcomes India as a rising power and backs its inclusion as a permanent member of a reformed and expanded United Nations Security Council, Secretary of State John Kerry has said ahead of his maiden visit to New Delhi.
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.
As India assumes the month-long presidency of the United Nations Security Council, the international community has "very high expectations" from it, New Delhi's envoy to the United Nations, Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.
China has said that it has "no objection" to India's candidature for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council but was firmly opposed to Japan's bid for the same due to "historical baggage", according to Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury.
India is expected to press for text-based negotiation during the current session of the United Nation General Assembly. Suman Guha Mozumder reports from New York
The United Nations members States have endorsed India's viewpoint that the General Assembly should begin the inter-governmental negotiations on expansion of the Security Council, with consensus emerging in favour of starting parleys by February next year. While all members agree that the Council should be expanded to reflect the current realities, a majority wants the expansion to take place in both categories and a minority subscribes to the UFC viewpoint.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said Pakistani forces have continued to engage in unprovoked ceasefire violations, often from civilian areas, to support infiltration of terrorists across the LoC.
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.
India found support in Africa in becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. During Dr Manmohan Singh's meet with the leaders of the African Union in Addis Ababa, the voice of Africa was unanimous in India bagging a permanent seat.
The attempt failed as other member countries felt Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
India, along with four other members of the United Nations Security Council, abstained from voting on a resolution that approves a no-fly zone over Libya and authorises "all necessary measures" for protecting civilians there from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces. Ten of the 15-member body voted in favour of the resolution, but five nations -- China, Russia (which have veto power) and non-permanent members India, Germany and Brazil -- abstained from voting.
"In our statement, we have said that we have told them that we want them to be cognisant of the fact that there should be no terrorism that emanates from their territory directed against us, or other countries; that we want them to be mindful of the status of women, minorities and so on so forth. And, and I think they have, also, you know, made reassuring... from their side," foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.
Indian ambassador to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri has been elected Chairman of the all important Security Council Committee on Counter-terrorism and two other key committees of this 15-member body.
India and Britain have also agreed that the World Bank should be reformed to give it an environmental focus. They further agreed on improving the working of the International Monetary Fund and on giving the United Nations a greater role in its stability and reconstruction activities.
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