Raisina Dialogue 2020: Russia Reiterates Support For India's Permanent Membership In UNSC

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday reiterated Moscow’s support for New Delhi’s permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council. Lavrov, who was speaking at India’s flagship global conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, 'Raisina Dialogue' said, “We believe India should be permanent member of UN Security Council.”

“We are convinced that the overriding trend of the global development is the objective process of the formation of new centres of economic might, financial power and political influence and India is obviously one them”, ANI quotes Lavrov as saying.

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Launching an attack on the US for flouting the idea of Indo-pacific, Russian foreign minister said, “Concept of Indo-Pacific initiated to contain China; its aim shouldn't be divisive.” “Initiators of Indo-Pacific told us it is more democratic than Asia Pacific; we don't think so”, Lavrov added.

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He said that the new Indo-Pacific concept being pushed by US, Japan and others is 'attempt to reconfigure' existing structure. However, supporting India's position on the Indo-Pacific concept, Lavrov said, "There should not be any effort to contain anyone; we support India's position."

Moreover, this year, the theme of the event is ‘21@20: Navigating the Alpha Century’, and it will see over 180 delegates from 105 countries including many deputy foreign ministers, former prime ministers, former presidents, national security advisors, military chiefs and other high level policy-makers, scholars and officials will participate in the event. 

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Besides, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, his counterparts from Iran, Australia, Maldives, South Africa, Latvia, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Denmark, Hungary, Rwanda and Tanzania will also be participating in the event.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and former prime ministers of Sweden, Republic of Korea, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and Bhutan are also participating in the conference.