Brown backs India’s bid for UN Security Council seat

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who is widely tipped to succeed Tony Blair as the Prime Minister, has backed India’s bid for a permanent seat in the expanded United Nation’s Security Council.

“Let me say Britain strongly supports India’s bid for a permanent place with others on a larger Security Council”, Brown said while delivering the key-note address at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Partnership Summit in Bangalore.

Making out a case for fast-growing countries like India to be given a far bigger role in world affairs, Brown said the G 7 comprising US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan should be expanded. Beginning with the UK Presidency of the G 7 in 2005, Brown pointed out “India has been in attendance at meetings of G 7 Finance Ministers and as part of the G 8 plus 5 Group has attended the G 8. It is time to formally recognize on a more consistent and regular basis the reality of this emerging new world order”

Lavishly praising India’s achievements on the economic front, Brown said India’s growth rate of eight percent would fill every “Finance Minister with envy”.

Though UK was the fifth largest investor in India and India the third largest investor in Britain, the British Chancellor of Exchequer said there was much scope to further improve bilateral ties.

Noting that India was one of the engines of global growth, Brown said Britain should be a full participant and a partner of choice for India. He said the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in India would increase its support to fully fund the Indo-British Partnership Network with the aim of doubling Britian’s exports to India by 2010 and quadrupling it by 2020.

Asserting that Britain stands “full square” against terrorism, Brown said India and his country would continue to work together in a global effort to combat terrorism. He observed that India and Britain had both sufferred due to terrorist activities and asserted that his country was rightly investing in its military, security forces, police and intelligence services both at home and abroad to root out terrorism