I was delighted to visit India last week. I greatly enjoyed working with my Indian colleagues in my last job as deputy secretary general at the UN. It is a pleasure now to be doing so again, in my new role as a minister at the British foreign office.

Having worked at the UN, and before that, the World Bank, I am a strong supporter of international institutions. It is vital that the world takes them seriously and gives them the support they need to succeed.

My time at the UN brought home to me two things in particular. First, that UN institutions will have to be modernised if they are to contribute to the solutions of the problems of the 21st century — poverty, conflict, human rights, climate change or disease. Second, that it is the shared responsibility of the member states — developed and developing countries — to make this change happen.

The United Nations and several other multilateral organisations, have their roots in the period after the World War II. The states who had emerged as victors found common cause in working together to end the scourge of war once and for all. But the world in 2007 has changed beyond all recognition from the world in 1945, and the United Nations needs to change to reflect the new realities.

The United Nations Security Council in particular must be modernised. The Security Council is a vital body, and one far too precious to be turned into a talking shop, or allowed to slip into obsolescence through leaving it unmodernised. Our vision is clear. The existing permanent membership and the non-permanent category needs to be expanded to reflect today’s realities. That in our view means permanent seats for India and Brazil as well as Germany and Japan, plus representation for Africa.

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