Former Brazilian prez backs India’s UNSC bid

India and some other countries from Asia, Latin America and Africa should find a permanent place in UN Security Council, said former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva while delivering the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture on Friday. HT reports.

India and some other countries from Asia, Latin America and Africa should find a permanent place in UN Security Council, said former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva while delivering the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture on Friday.

HT Image

“This was essential to reflect the surge of developing economies over the developed world," Da Silva added.

An International Monetary Fund report in April had suggested that the combined economies of developing countries will surpass that of the developed countries, Silva said.

"The world's political order should reflect this reality and not the balance of power after World war II," he said.

Vice President M Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were among those present at the lecture.

Stressing the need to develop a new psyche of sustainable development based on inclusion of poor people, the former Brazilian president said: “In my country, this was the path that led us to sustainable development.

The poor were not seen as a problem but a part of the solution.”

Observing that the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008 was still being felt especially by the more vulnerable countries in Europe, he said this called for a rethink about the governance and economic system across the globe.

“Crises and deadlock, when they occur also have this advantage, they force us to think,” he said quoting Nehru.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi also showered praise for Silva saying, “It is a rare human being who traverses the full arch of human possibilities and the former Brazilian president was one such person.”

She said like Nehru, Silva had invested greatly in education along with science and technology.