By IANS,
London : France and Brazil have backed India’s call for the UN Security Council to be expanded as their leaders prepare to attend the G8-G5 meetings in Italy this week.
“To be effective, the (Security) Council has to reflect current realities, notably by granting a greater role to the big developing countries of each region like Brazil and India and a fairer representation for Africa and the big contributors to the UN system like Japan and Germany,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva said in a joint article published in the French daily Liberation Tuesday.
Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in an article published in the compendium brought for the G8 summit, said the Security Council “must evolve to become true representative of the global community”.
“The system of two-tiered membership, which gives a veto to the five permanent members, i.e. nations that emerged victorious after the Second World War, is clearly anachronistic.
“Germany and Japan, which have significantly larger economies than Britain and France, both permanent members, are excluded. China is the only developing country in the P-5 and it is there for historical reasons, not as a large and economically important developing country,” he wrote.
“It is obvious that if the system was being designed today, it would be very different,” Manmohan Singh argued.
“India will seek its due place, play its destined role and share its assigned responsibility, giving voice to the hopes and aspirations of a billion people in South Asia,” the prime minister added.
The G8 – comprising America, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia – are to be joined by the Group of Five at the summit in L’Aquila.
The G5 – China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa – and the G8 will hold separate talks before meeting together.