Sarkozy favours a permanent UNSC seat for India

Betwa Sharma
New York, Mar 30 (PTI) French President Nicholas Sarkozy
on Tuesday made a strong pitch for India's inclusion as a
permanent member of the UN Security Council, which he said
needs to be expanded to make it more inclusive.
Speaking at the prestigious Columbia University, Sarkozy
said emerging voices like India, Africa and the Arab world
need to find a place in the UNSC, as he slammed the present
structure of the world body.
"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.
Setting aside his prepared speech to "speak from the
heart," Sarkozy said this Security Council and its membership
was decided at the end of the World War II way back in 1945
questioning why no African or Arab country had a permanent
seat on the UNSC, despite representing over a billion people
together.
"Did you know that there isn't a single Arab country that
represents hundreds of millions of people that has a permanent
seat on the UN Security Council," he added.
Sarkozy said emerging economies of the world could not be
expected to be part of solving world problems, if they did not
have a seat on the Security Council.
"How could you expect Brazil or India or Africa for that
matter to endorse part of the responsibility vis-a-vis the
world's major difficulties and conflict if they are not even
listened to... would you like to be in their shoes?" he asked.
"Would you like to be told when it comes for paying up...
step up but when it comes to speaking up step down... who can
go along with that... nobody," he added.
Sarkozy said it was the responsibility of the US and
Europe to ensure the participation of the nations that would
be big powers in the coming decades, contending that
membership of the General Assembly was not enough. PTI