Krishna to attend high-level meeting on development in UNSC

Betwa Sharma

United Nations, Feb 3 (PTI) External Affairs MinisterS M Krishna is expected to attend a high-level meeting onpeace, security and development at the UN Security Council onFebruary 11 during which he would also push for India''s questfor a permanent seat in the top UN organ.

The meeting is being organised by the Braziliandelegation that holds the presidency of the Council for thismonth.

"We have received confirmation from minister offoreign affairs of several delegations," Maria Luiza RibeiroViotti, Permanent Representative of Brazil, told journalistsyesterday.

She said Portugal, India, Germany, Colombia, Gabonand Bosnia have confirmed their participation.

"We would like to emphasize a theme that is verydear to developing countries," Viotti said.

"We would like to take this broader view on peace andsecurity and explore the inter-linkages between security anddevelopment."

Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota willpreside over the meeting, which will be briefed bySecretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sarah Cliffe, the Directorfor the World Development Report on Conflict, Security andDevelopment at the World Bank.

"The idea," Viotti said, "is to take a morecomprehensive approach to the issues of peace and securitykeeping in mind that many conflicts have an underlying causethat is sometimes related to issues of poverty, socialinequalities and problems of youth and unemployment."

The Indian mission at the UN was not able to providedetails of Krishna''s trip but he is expected to push India''sagenda for Security Council reform as countries get ready tonegotiate on a text containing several options, which has beenprepared by Afghanistan''s envoy to the UN, Zahir Tanin, who isalso the chair of the reform discussion.

Issues like how many new permanent seats shouldbe added and who should get those seats in the SecurityCouncil, have been discussed for almost two decades.

Indian officials, however, have reiterated thatongoing "text based negotiations" are bound to produceresults.

There are currently 15 members on the SecurityCouncil�five permanent (Britain, China, France, Russia, UnitedStates), which have veto power and 10 non-permanent membersthat are elected for a two year terms. (more) PTI BS