India needs rightful place: PM Modi hints at UN Security council membership before French visit

New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi on Thursday pushed for India’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council saying that the most populous country ‘needs to regain its rightful place’.

Ahead of his visit to France, where he is the guest of honour at the Bastille Day celebrations on Friday, PM Modi shared with French publication Les Echos the roles India can play globally.

‘The issue is not just of credibility, but something much larger. How can the UN Security Council claim to speak for the world when its most populous country and its largest democracy is not a permanent member?, he was quoted as saying.

Questioning the lack in UN Security Council, he said the skewed membership of the council adds to its helplessness in addressing global challenges, as well as leading ‘to opaque decision making process’.

He said French President Emmanuel Macron also shared most countries’ views about changes they like to see in UN Security Council including India’s role there.

PM Modi told French media at his official residence that there is a ‘natural expectation of adjustments in the international system’, considering the world’s largest democracy’s unparelled social and economic diversity.

The Prime Minister called India as a bridge between the Global South and the west, adding that rights of the former have long been denied.

Calling India a soft power, he said India always contributed to global peace and progress, adding India’s exports were never war and subjugation but yoga, ayurveda, spirituality, science, mathematics and Astronomy.