PM Narendra Modi speaks at the G4 summit in New York
In his opening remarks at a special summit in New York of four countries - Japan, Germany, Brazil and India or the G-4 - host Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch to reform the United Nations Security Council and include as permanent members "the world's largest democracies."
Here are the top 10 quotes from the PM's short speech:
The reform of the Security Council within a fixed time frame has become an urgent and important task. The Security Council must include the world's largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents. It will carry greater credibility and legitimacy and will be more representative and effective in addressing the challenges of the 21st century.
The subject of reforms in the United Nations Security Council has been the focus of global attention for decades - unfortunately, without progress so far.
As I had reflected in my letter on the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, we live in a fundamentally different world from the time the UN was born.
The number of Member States has grown four-fold. Threats to peace and security have become more complex, unpredictable and undefined. In many ways, our lives are becoming globalised, but fault-lines around our identities are growing.
We live in a digital age. The global economy is changed, with new engines of growth, more widely dispersed economic power and widening wealth gap.
Trends in demography, urbanization and migrations are posing new challenges. Climate change and terrorism are new concerns. Cyber and Space are entirely new frontiers of opportunities and challenges.
Yet, our institutions, approaches, and often mindsets, reflect the wisdom of the century we have left behind, not the century we live in. This is especially true of the United Nations Security Council.
After decades, we finally see some movement. The 69th Session of the General Assembly has taken a significant step forward to commence text-based negotiations.
However, this is just the first step. We should aim to take this process to its logical conclusion during the 70th session. I am confident that our meeting today will give a big impetus to our efforts in this direction.
G-4 came together in 2004, bound by our shared commitment to global peace and prosperity, our faith in multilateralism and our willingness to assume our global responsibilities that the world expects from us.
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