Krishna to attend UNSC meeting in New York
By IANSWednesday, February 9, 2011
NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna leaves Wednesday night for New York to attend an important meet at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as well as push forward the agenda for further UN reforms.
Krishna will reach New York Thursday, and participate in a high-level meeting on peace, security and development at the UNSC Friday. India became a non-permanent member of the UNSC Jan 1 - returning to the high table after a gap of 19 years.
The high-level meeting has been convened by Brazil, which is the president of the council for the month of February.
The meeting will be presided over by Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota and will be attended by his counterparts from several other countries, including Germany, Colombia, Gabon and Portugal. It will be briefed by senior officials, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
According to reports quoting Brazil’s permanent representative to the UN Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, the meeting will discuss the big picture on peace and security, as well as the connections between security and development.
Besides, Krishna is also likely to lobby for the issue of UNSC reforms, which will be now done through a new document which has been distributed by Afghanistan’s permanent representative Zahir Tanin, who also chairs the intergovernmental committee on UNSC reforms.
It lists various options for reforming the UNSC, from expanding the number of seats in both permanent and non-permanent categories, to creating a completely new category with a term of over a decade.
India has put forth itself as a candidate for a permanent seat in a reformed, expanded UNSC - pointing out that the present five permanent members are a legacy of the post-World War II geo-politics.
