India to help strengthen UNSC when it becomes permanent: Puri

UNITED NATIONS: India, which has completed its one-month tenure as the UN Security Council President, has said it has demonstrated through its "constructive" approach to key issues like Syria and Libya that it will work to strengthen the top body when it becomes a permanent member.

Expressing satisfaction over the way India handled the UNSC Presidency last month, the country's Permanent Ambassador to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said that New Delhi's approach to key issues was "constructive" and it worked with a "voice of moderation, based on realism."

"We have also been able to demonstrate that as a country which aspires for permanent membership, when we get one on a more enduring basis we will actually work to strengthen the council," Puri said.

He said that India's permanent membership at the UNSC would come from a traction in the General Assembly and not because "somebody said we have been on good behaviour. We do not have to prove anything to anyone."

"India's permanent membership will come because people want the world's largest democracy, with a healthy economy, functioning democratic institutions and a country which stands for the interest of the developing countries" to be given the responsibility, Puri said .

He said there is appreciation of the manner in which India handled the issues, including situation in Syria, Libya, Sudan and Horn of Africa.

"We took the issues head on and did not duck" when confronted by them, he said.

With relations with the US being excellent, Puri said India was able to engage bilaterally with it on several issues besides working in tandem with developing countries like Brazil and South Africa as well as permanent UNSC members like Britain and France.