G-4 initiative on right track, says India

Berlin, Apr 25 :India has dismissed suggestions that the initiative of the G-4 countries, comprising India, Germany, Japan and Brazil, to earn permanent seats for themselves in an expanded United Nations Security Council has run out of steam.

''We are on the right track. It is wrong to say that the initiative is going nowhere. Quite clearly, each one of us is busy stock-taking,'' National Security Adviser M K Narayanan told reporters here.

Mr Narayanan, who is here with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the latter's visit to Germany, said the G-4 group was waiting for the African Union to take a clear cut position on the expansion of the Security Council as also the countries it wanted to be included in the council from the African continent.

Mr Narayanan said the issue of the Security Council expansion had figured prominently during talks between the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover on Sunday.

The two leaders had emphasised the need for the expansion of the Security Council as part of the reforms of the UN. They also made their positions clear on the Security Council expansion in the joint statements issued by India and Germany after the talks between the two leaders.

Mr Narayanan said there were apprehensions that Japan could withdraw from the grouping as it had openly been receiving the support of the United States for inclusion in the Security Council.

''But the signals we are now getting clearly indicate that Japan feels that it must remain within the G-4 to make out a strong case for its inclusion in the Security Council,'' he added.

UNI