Croatia supports India`s bid for permanent UNSC membership

Achinta Borah
Zagreb, Jun 10 (PTI) Croatia Thursday extended its full
support to India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security
Council, saying it was logical for the country to have a
prominent role in the world body considering its all-round
development and vibrant democracy.
This was conveyed to Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari,
who is here on a two-day visit, by the Croatian leadership.
"The Speaker of Croatia (Luka Bebic) remarked that as
India is the world's largest democracy, considering India's
all-round development and development of its democracy, it is
important for the world to have India as a permanent member of
the UNSC and Croatia supports India's permanent membership in
the Security Council," Secretary (West) Vivek Katju said,
briefing reporters on the second leg of Ansari's two-nation
trip.
Katju said that Ansari's meetings with the Speaker today
and President Ivo Josipovic last night were warm and both of
them underlined the importance attached to the visit of the
Vice President.
"The Vice President said that the objective of the visit
is to strengthen cooperation in existing areas and to explore
new areas and to put in place a system to sustain the
cooperation," he said.
There is a great scope to enhance cooperation in sectors
like science and technology, bio-science, physical science,
Information Technology and environmental science.
During his meeting with the President, Ansari exchanged
views on Afghanistan and situation prevailing there besides
giving an account on what India was doing for the
reconstruction of the war-torn nation, which was appreciated
by the host country.
There is a great awareness about what India is doing in
Afghanistan as both Czech Republic and Croatia have
contributed troops to the NATO forces based there.
The Vice President, who arrived here yesterday after his
visit to Czech Republic, sought greater international
cooperation in tackling terrorism, Katju said, adding the two
sides also discussed the Non-Aligned Movement and emphasised
that there was a need to have a better structure in place in
view of existing realities.
Ansari noted that India had undertaken massive
infrastructure projects and welcomed Croatian companies, with
expertise in the field, to participate in its road
construction schemes.
Katju said Croatia was an important country for India as
it was the gateway to the Central and Eastern Europe which
India would like to explore, apart from its ports.
He also said that both-way tourism offered greater
people-to-people cooperation. PTI