In Hungary,Krishna makes strong pitch for UNSC seat

He also made a strong pitch for Indias membership at the UN Security Council. An overwhelming majority of UN member-states have repeatedly expressed themselves in favour of expansion of the Security Council in both its permanent and non-permanent categories and an improvement in its working methods. It is imperative that all the countries of Asia and Europe solidly support an expansion in both categories and collectively push for real reform of the Security Council, he said in Godollo,Hungary,while participating in the ASEM foreign ministers meeting.

The time for this reform has not only come,it is imperative that we brook no delay as that will only be at the expense of the UN,which is not in the interest of any of us,individually or collectively, he added.

The UNSC reform has been on the UNs agenda for nearly two decades,he said,adding that much of this time was spent in an endless open ended working group. However,the text based inter-governmental negotiations,that started last year,he said,have now brought us to a turning point where we can move things forward with real negotiations on Council reform.