After a gap of 19 years, India on Monday assumed the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for August, a period it intends to utilise to establish its credentials for a permanent membership by creating a more "enduring" presence for itself. A temporary member of the Council, India last held the monthly presidency in December 1992. August, being a vacation period, is expected to be a more relaxed one.
As it has done in the past, Beijing put a technical hold on the proposal just as the deadline was about to end.
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 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.
India on its part pointed out that the paper does not have the core elements of the position of the Group of Four comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil or have a "categorical and unambiguous" formulation on expanding the permanent membership of the council, diplomats said. India also said the paper does not have a formulation on increasing the representation of developing countries.
"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.
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned the "heinous and cowardly" murder of British humanitarian aid worker David Haines by the Islamic State terror group, saying the outfit must be defeated and violence it adopts "stamped out."
The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators in Libya and expressed deep regret at the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
"We deeply appreciate the fact that President Obama made that declaration of support for India's candidature as a Permanent Member of the Security Council and subsequently to that we have had some useful discussion with the State Department," Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told media persons at a press conference in Washington.
Britain has backed India for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council to make the world body more credible and effective.
India and Brazil on Wednesday called for urgent progress in reforms of the UN Security Council, as they agreed to scale up bilateral ties and deepen cooperation in international fora.
The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the member states' names. According to the information released by the office of the UN spokesperson, India will assume the rotating presidency of the Council for the month of August next year.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Washington's move only complicates the issue.
Lisa Curtis, the head of conservative Heritage Foundation's South Asia Program analyses the Obama visit to India in conversation with Aziz Haniffa.
"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.
BREAKING NEWS: United States President Barack Obama speaks to PTI on his visit to India.
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.
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.
Contending that the United Nations Security Council should reflect contemporary realities, India on Wednesday sought 'urgent reform' of the powerful UN body to effectively meet emerging global challenges.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the deadly Israeli attack on Gaza, with India expressing hope that Israel and Palestine will pay heed to the Council's message that the two should exercise restraint and violence must stop.
"This nuclear fuel is definitely for the development of Iran and expansion of peace in the world," Ahmadinejad said.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com presents the names of 10 global terrorists who, according to United Nations Security Council, are operating against India from Pakistan.
Iran blamed America for the cancellation saying they had delayed the issuance of visas to the crew of the special plane that would have carried Ahmedinejad to New York for the meeting.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has made a strong case for reform of the United Nations Security Council, emphasising that it should be expanded to include nations willing to share responsibility of combating global threats like terrorism and piracy and help in maintaining security.
Currently, the non-permanent members serve for two years and are not eligible for re-election immediately after finishing their term.
Pak rejected the world body's move as a "victory for India and validation of its stance" as projected by the Indian media.
Addressing a press conference shortly after being sworn in as the eighth secretary general on Thursday, he also did not agree with his predecessor Kofi Annan's criticism of the US for its "go-it-alone" diplomacy at the cost of multilateralism.
Oil rich Venezuela, which has been lobbying for the non-permanent UN Security Council seat for a long time, distributing huge amounts of aid among African, Asian and Caribbean nations. But it is vehemently opposed by the United States.
"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.
"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 United Nations Security Council has asked nations not to pay ransom to terrorists in incidents of kidnapping, saying such funds are used by terror groups to support recruitment efforts and carry out attacks.
"The Security Council underlines the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers, and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice," the statement said.
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.
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.
Sharma was confident that New Delhi would occupy its rightful place on the UNSC.
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