WASHINGTON, MARCH 28: Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain has strongly supported India’s entry into the elite G-8 while calling for Russia’s ejection to make it “again a club of leading market democracies.”

“We should start by ensuring that the G-8, the group of eight highly industrialized states, becomes again a club of leading market democracies: it should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia,” McCain, who has sealed his nomination for the November Presidential election, said in a major foreign policy speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

“Rather than tolerate Russia’s nuclear blackmail or cyber attacks, Western nations should make clear that the solidarity of NATO, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, is indivisible and that the organisation’s doors remain open to all democracies committed to the defence of freedom,” the 71-year-old Vietnam veteran said.

While the United States must play a central role in shaping the future, McCain said it will have to come to terms to the changing power equations in the world.

“Today we are not alone. There is the powerful collective voice of the European Union, and there are the great nations of India and Japan, Australia and Brazil, South Korea and South Africa, Turkey and Israel, to name just a few of the leading democracies. There are also the increasingly powerful nations of China and Russia that wield great influence in the international system,” he said.

G-8 members Britain and France have also supported India’s inclusion into the grouping. The other members are Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. These countries represent about 65 per cent of world economy.

India is part of Outreach Five or the Plus Five which have participated as guests in previous G-8 meetings. The other members are Brazil, China, Mexico and South Africa.

In a departure from the Bush administration’s stand on global warming and climate change, McCain stressed that the risks of global warming has no borders and the US had to lead by example.

“We need a successor to the Kyoto Treaty, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner. We Americans must lead by example and encourage the participation of the rest of the world, including most importantly, the developing economic powerhouses of China and India,” he added.

In contrast the Bush administration has been putting the onus on India and China over cutting greenhouse emissions.

“There is such a thing as international good citizenship. We need to be good stewards of our planet and join with other nations to help preserve our common home. The risks of global warming have no borders. We and the other nations of the world must get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand off a much-diminished world to our grandchildren,” McCain said.

On terrorism, McCain while favouring the “aggressive” strategy of the current administration, called for the closure of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison housing terrorism suspects and repudiated torture.

“America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. We must fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are the foundation of our society. We can’t torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists,” he said.