PM Modi pitches for UNSC seat, says G4 stands for global peace, security

NEW DELHI/NEW YORK: Prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the G4 nations stand firm on ensuring and contributing to global peace and security, upping the ante for permanent seats on the high table of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for India, Japan, Brazil and Germany.

“The UNSC must include the world’s largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents,” Modi said during the first G4 Summit in New York over a decade. “We should aim to reform UNSC during the ongoing 70th session of the UN.”

The prime minister said the world today lived in a fundamentally different era from when the UN was born, faced with complex challenges. He said the challenges and the threats were different today. The meeting, hosted by India, was attended by German chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.

Angela Merkel and Dilma Rousseff echoed similar views on UNSC reforms. After the G4 meet, Modi will travel to San Jose, California, where he will visit Tesla Motors and meet top officials of IT companies, including Tim Cook (Apple), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Shantanu Narayen (Adobe).