UK PM, Gordon Brown, endorses India’s candidacy for the UN Security Council

New Delhi: India's on-again, off-again campaign for permanent membership in the United Nation Security Council received an unexpected boost with the UK prime minister Gordon Brown providing his country's endorsement.

Engaging the media after his interaction with Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, the British prime minister said international problems could not be solved if India wasn't at the high table. Citing India's example, Brown asked for a reform of global institutions and said there was a need for persuading the rest of the world. 

Brown set the tone for the visit early on when he told reporters after a ceremonial welcome, "I am happy to be here to celebrate, what I call, partnership of equals with modern, confident 21st century India."

Making a major policy speech, the British PM called for a transformation of the world's major institutions, which, as he pointed out, reflected the realities of 1945. The UN, World Bank and IMF had to be radically reformed, he told a high-powered group of industrialists.

"I see a world that harnesses for the common good the growing inter-dependence of nations, cultures and peoples - a new global society," he said.

While repeating British support to India's membership in the UN Security Council, he also asked the IMF to become a bank that could set up early warning systems against financial crises.

In his speech Brown also proposed turning the IMF into an independent watchdog.

"I propose that the IMF should act with the same kind of independence as a central bank in a national country," he said. "It should make its focus the surveillance of the global economic and financial system.

Its role should be to prevent crises and not simply to manage or resolve them as in the past," said Brown, nearing the end of a four-day trip to China and India.

"The IMF, working with the global Financial Stability Forum, should be at the heart of...an early warning system, involving regulators and supervisors in all countries, for financial turbulence affecting the global economy," he added.

In the context of the Iranian nuclear crisis, and the growing demand for nuclear energy by non-nuclear countries, Brown said he would press for an IAEA-led international system which could give nuclear energy to countries that needed it, against "the highest benchmarks of proliferation".

"So Britain will press for early agreement to a new IAEA-led international system to help non-nuclear states acquire the new sources of energy they need, including through an enrichment bond," he said.

Meanwhile, a comprehensive joint statement at the end of Brown's visit touched upon the Middle East crisis and Myanmar, even as it refrained from mentioning Pakistan.

The statement also reflected Brown's proposal to reform international institutions, counter terrorism, and other subjects.