Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on October 9 said New Delhi should get its ‘rightful place’ on the UN Security Council, highlighting India’s remarkable growth story and its potential to play a key role in global affairs.
In his statement after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mumbai, he made a strong pitch for India to get permanent membership in the UNSC.
“We want to see India taking its rightful place in the UNSC,” he remarked. His stance aligns with that of various nations, including the US, Germany, France and Japan, who have strongly supported India’s UNSC bid.
Russia has also backed India’s bid last month after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country supports greater representation from Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the global body. Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said PM Modi and Starmer discussed the Khalistani extremist issue during their discussions held in Mumbai on October 9.
While addressing a special media briefing on Starmer’s visit to India, Misri said that PM Modi, during the talks, emphasised that radicalism and violent extremism had no space in democratic societies and the need to act against them in the legal framework. He said that PM Modi also offered condolences over the recent attack near a synagogue in Manchester. Earlier this year, Khalistani goons created ruckus outside the Chatham House in London where External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar was attending an event. A video from the event, showing a protester running towards the EAM’s vehicle as he was leaving the venue, had gone viral on social media highlighting the security breach.