UK favours UNSC seat for India, entry into G-8

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Favouring greater role for New Delhi in the global arena, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed its bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council and sought expansion to G-8 to include India in it in view of the ‘new realities’.

"India should become a member of the UNSC," Brown said while speaking at the UK-India Entrepreneurship Summit at the IIT here soon after his arrival on a two-day visit.

India is bidding for permanent membership of expanded UNSC, arguing that its inclusion in the powerful body was essential as part of reforms of the 60-year-old organisation.

Brown, who is on his maiden visit here as Prime Minister, also sought expansion of G-8 bloc of developed countries to include India.

Maintaining that New Delhi needs to have a ‘prominent role’ in the expanded G-8, he said "There is no future for any big economic bloc which does not include India."

India, along with China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, is a member of five Outreach countries of the G-8 and there have been suggestions to expand the eight-nation grouping of industrialised world to include them.

The issue of G-8 expansion to include the "major threshold nations" as full members was expected to be discussed at the last Summit in Germany's Heiligendamm but the issue was skirted because of "different views".

In the run up to the G-8 summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had spoken in favour of closely integrating the threshold nations into the developed countries' fold, but several other G-8 members opposed a full membership preferring to preserve the exclusiveness of the rich nations' club.