PM Modi makes strong pitch for UNSC reforms at G4 summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday made a strong pitch for reforms of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), saying that it would lend greater credibility and legitimacy to the Council.

Prime Minister Modi said that it is 'unfortunate' that no progress has been made in this direction despite the issue being at the centre of global attention for decades.

"The reform of the Security Council within a fixed time-frame has become an urgent and important task. The Security Council must include world's largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economies. It will carry greater credibility, legitimacy and will be more representative and effective in addressing the challenges of the 21 century," the Prime Minister said in his opening remarks at the G4 summit.

"The subject of reforms in UNSC has been the focus of global attention for decades, unfortunately without any progress so far," he added.

He further said that the UN should gear up to address the problems of the 21st century.

"The reform of the Security Council within a fixed time- frame has become an urgent and important task. The Security Council must include the world's largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents. It will carry greater credibility and legitimacy and will be more representative and effective in addressing the challenges of the 21st century," he said.

The Prime Minister said that trends in demography, urbanization and migrations are posing new challenges.

"Climate change and terrorism are new concerns. Cyber and Space are entirely new frontiers of opportunities and challenges," he said.

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"Yet, our institutions, approaches, and often mindsets, reflect the wisdom of the century we have left behind, not the century we live in. This is especially true of the United Nations Security Council," he added.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff echoed similar views on UNSC reforms.

"We need reform of Security Council which reflects distribution of power in the world," Merkel said at G4 summit.

"We need a representative and effective Security Council," said Rousseff

After the G-4 deliberations, Prime Minister Modi will travel to San Jose, California, where he will visit Tesla Motors and meet top officials of IT companies, including Tim Cook (Apple Inc.), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Shantanu Narayen (Adobe).