Work with G4 to get UNSC seat: Germany to India

New Delhi: Days after the US backed India's quest for permanent membership of UN Security Council, Germany today suggested that New Delhi will have to continue to work under the format of G4 to achieve it, arguing that no country could alone get the required votes.

Germany, which is a member of G4 along with India, Japan and Brazil and aspiring for permanent seat in UNSC, underlined the need for reform of the global body to reflect the current world realities.

"We stand fully behind the G4 proposal but in the UN you need to have 129 votes. At the moment, none of us are in the position to get them on our own. That is why we have offered this pack (G-4)," German Ambassador to India Thomas Matussek said here at the Indian Council for World Affairs.

He was asked to comment on reports that Germany was not happy with India getting the US support for UNSC membership.

Commenting on US President Barack Obama's support for India's aspiration for permanent membership of the UNSC, the envoy said Germany "whole-heartedly" supports it.

Stressing the need for reforms in the UNSC, Matussek said present day UNSC reflected the "geo-political realities" of the 1940s and not the present global order.

He said though the major economic business in the world was being run through bodies such as G7 and G20, the only body with accepted legitimacy was the UN.

"Look at the US, in Iraq without the UN legitimacy, it could not get much far," he said, making his point.

When asked why the armed forces of the two countries were not conducting joint counter-terrorism drills, the Ambassador said, "We would like to work closely with India in fight against international terrorism... we would be more than happy to perform these manoeuvres with Indian armed forces."

He noted that all the attacks in India have been traced to Pakistan underlined the need for going to their roots in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

When it was pointed out that Pakistan was having a hidden agenda in Afghanistan for creating strategic depth there, he said Islamabad needs to understand that it would also not be safe unless there was peace in Afghanistan.

Commenting on the Indian Air Force's move to procure 126 combat aircraft, Matussek said Germany, as one of the four partners in the Eurofighter programme, was offering a "real political partnership" to India in the programme.

"We are here for a long haul... We are even forgoing the End-user Monitoring Agreement (EUMA) and offering a complete transfer of technology. We would like India to work closely with us in the future development of the aircraft," he added.

Eurofighter is one of the six contenders in the race for the contract expected to be worth over USD 12 billion.