Burns favours India's inclusion in UNSC

New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) Strongly favouring expansion of
the UN Security Council to include India, former US diplomat
Nicholas Burns Tuesday said the challenges confronting the
world cannot be solved by the global body if emerging
countries were kept out of their solutions.

Burns, former US Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs, said UNSC's expansion was indispensable if the world
body needs to represent the realities of the present day.

"I cannot imagine a UNSC without India as a permanent
member... How can we think about solving global problems
without India, Japan, an African country and one of the Latin
American countries as permanent members of the UN," he said.

A Professor of Practice of Diplomacy and International
Policy at the Kennedy School, Burns said to deal with
challenges like economic crisis, climate change and terrorism,
better international cooperation was required and India, China
and Brazil "all have to be part of any solution".

He said the proposed institution of G-2 to reflect a
US-China axis did not appear to make sense.

"In that context I am glad to see the institution of G-8
slowly transforming into the G-20, and I feel the institution
of G-2 does not seem to work in the present world," he said
while speaking at an interactive session here on 'India and
the crisis in South Asia'.

Contending that focus of the US foreign policy has
shifted from Europe to South Asia, Burns said the region
becomes important in face of challenges like confronting the
problems in Iraq and Afghanistan and dealing with Iran. PTI
WAJ