Pranab hopeful on permanent seat, Tharoor

New York, Sept 28: At the end of his weeklong visit to United Nations and New York, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed optimism about India getting a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council.

Mr Mukherjee is also hopeful that Shashi Tharoor, India's candidate for the post of Secretary-General, will succeed Kofi Annan.

"It's high time for reforms at the United Nations, including the Security Council," he told a news conference yesterday. "There is consensus on UN reforms, but not on how to achieve the same. We are confident that India will find a place among the permanent members." The Security Council currently has five permanent members, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, and 10 non-permanent members serving for two years and representing different regions of the world. A UN committee in late 2004 recommended that the membership of the Council be increased. But so far no action has been taken by the world body.

On Tharoor, currently UN Under-Secretary-General for public information, the minister said, "He's scored reasonably well (in two informal straw polls). Let's see what'll happen." On his bilateral meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr Mukherjee said various issues of mutual concern were discussed, civilian nuclear deal being one of them. "Every legislature has its own ways to ratify agreements and we hope that it is possible that the US Congress will ratify the deal soon," the veteran ruling party leader said.

Asked whether India was insisting that Australia and other countries should supply uranium for its nuclear energy needs, Mr Mukherjee said: "We are not going to pressurise anybody to give uranium or anything else." The minister, who arrived in New York on September 19, led a 12-member Indian delegation to the 61st UN General Assembly session.

On September 25, he delivered a speech on India's security needs at Harvard University. Among others, Mr Mukherjee met with leaders of Ghana, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Croatia, Greece, Nepal and Bangladesh. He also addressed the session earlier yesterday.

"I am satisfied that this visit has given me an opportunity to put forward India's perspectives to a wide international audience," he said.

Answering a question about the possible delivery of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan by the United States, the defence minister allayed fears that India would be vulnerable.

"Our defence preparedness is adequate and can meet any eventuality," he added.

Mr Mukherjee acknowledged that he did not read "In the Line of Fire: a Memoir" written by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf but the minister doubted some of the claims made in the book.

"However, we do hope Pakistan will rein in terrorists from crossing the Line of Control," he noted. "We've to resolve all outstanding issues through a composite dialogue." Making it clear that there was no question of India agreeing to re-drawing its borders, Mr Mukherjee said Gen Musharraf had proposed "out-of-the-box" solutions to our bilateral issues.

Calling for confidence-building measures on both sides, the parliamentarian observed "trust begets trust." To a question on terrorism, Mr Mukherjee said that terrorism has no religion or community and it would be wrong to link it with them.

UNI