India has growing support to get permanent Security Council seat: Foreign minister Jaishankar

Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday (21) said there is a greater support for India's case to be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and that there is a broad global consensus over the need to reform the council.

"I do believe that each passing year, I sense in the world that there is greater and greater support for India to be there (UNSC)," he said.

Jaishankar said a reform particularly as it does not reflect the realities of the world, asserting that an expanded council is not only in India's favour but also in favour of other unrepresented areas.

"Within a few years India will be the third largest economy in the world, it will be the most populous society and not to have such a country in the council- it's obvious it's not good for us, but I also think it's good for the global council," he said while speaking at the Columbia University, New York, US.

Earlier, he also said that it is in the mutual interest of India and China to find a way to accommodate each other as the "Rise of Asia" is contingent on the economies of the two countries getting along well.

"The biggest thing we have seen in the world is the rise of China. It has risen in a dramatic manner. It's in mutual interest to accommodate each other because the rise of Asia is contingent on the three biggest economies getting along with each other," the Indian diplomat said.

Over the last three days, Jaishankar has met with envoys and heads of states from around the world on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and has had more than 50 official engagements in total.

The highlights of his meetings, particularly with developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Small Islands, are sharply focused on the reform of the UNSC.

"We do command the confidence and trust of a very large part of the world. I do not want to compare it with the current permanent 5 (P5) but I would say a lot of countries, perhaps think that we speak for them with a high degree of empathy and accuracy," Jaishankar added.

The Indian minister will address world leaders at the General Assembly on Saturday, after which he will leave for Washington where he will meet his US counterpart Antony Blinken.

[With ANI inputs]