'Russia supports India's bid for permanent UNSC seat': Foreign Minister at RIC meet

Russia has reiterated its support for India's candidacy to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, just days after India was elected unanimously for a non-permanent seat for a term of two years. 

Speaking at a meeting of the RIC (Russia-India-China) Foreign Ministers on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, "Today we talked of probable reforms of the United Nations and India is a strong nominee to become a permanent member of UN Security Council and we support India's candidacy. We believe it can become a full-fledged member of the Security Council."

The virtual meeting was attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Russia has publically endorsed India's bid for the coveted permanent seat during bilateral summits. Currently, only the United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain are permanent members of the Council which gives them immense hold over the global body in decision making and execution. India, along with Germany, Brazil, and Japan, also known as the Group of Four (G4), have long called for expansion of the Security Council and support each others' candidacy for permanent membership.

India has been actively pursuing the permanent membership for years and has received support from four of the five permanent members. Barring China, the other permanent members of the Security Council have backed India to join as a permanent member, including two successive US governments.

India won a non-permanent seat to the UNSC for the eighth-time after voting concluded at the UN headquarters in New York on June 17. India was the only country from the Asia-Pacific Group and won the election unopposed. The UNSC term will begin in January 2021.

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Russia rules out any intervention

Meanwhile, during the RIC meeting, Sergey Lavrov ruled out any Russian intervention in the current standoff between India and China over the contentious border dispute at Ladakh. Maintaining that both countries did not need any help from outside, he exuded confidence that they can solve problems on their own.

He added that India and China had shown their commitment to the peaceful resolution of the dispute with meetings taking place at the diplomatic as well as the military level. Lavrov stressed that neither of the two nations had made any statement indicating a desire to pursue non-diplomatic solutions. He expressed hope that the situation would continue to be peaceful. 

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