France backs Indian bid for UNSC chair

PARIS: President Jacques Chirac reaffirmed on Tuesday that France backed India’s bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

“I am convinced that India has a growing international role to play - a role on the scale of the world’s largest democracy,” the French president said in a speech to the Franco-Indian Initiatives Forum.

“That is why France has for a long time backed India’s candidacy for a seat as a permanent member of the Security Council,” he told the audience of about 30 diplomats and businessmen. He added that France would “promote a real spirit of dialogue between Asia and the European Union.”

With a population of more than one billion, India has long sought a permanent seat on the council, contending that the current members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - no longer represent today’s world order. The France-India Forum was founded in January 1998 during a state visit by Mr Chirac to India in order to develop bilateral relations. Two former foreign ministers Jean Francois-Poncet of France and India’s Maharajkrishna Rasgotra head it. —AFP

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