India for UNSC membership

India  strongly permanent membership of the UN Security Council to play a greater role at the global stage. Addressing a conference on international relations in Delhi, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said, there is a desperate need to expand India's diplomatic tools and enhance the defence capabilities besides autonomy of the nuclear abilities. He said, equipping the defence forces with most modern weapons is important apart from creating soft power by organising seminars. Mr. Ranjan Mathai said the primary task is to achieve inclusive growth and the removal of poverty and pleaded to make growth uninterrupted. He called for making use of foreign policy to ensure a peaceful neighbourhood and India's role at global level. Addressing the conference, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said, non-state actors are performing state functions in India's neighbourhood. He said, power is moving from larger states into the hands of small groups of people. These, he said, is due to structural shifts in the nature of power. Inaugurating the Conference, Vice President Hamid Ansari said, India's understanding of countries and people cannot be based solely on academic output of foreign institutions. Mr. Ansari said, absence of study of international relations in the country evoked questions. With India emerging at the global stage with a robust economic growth, the nature of its international relations has to change. This was precisely the message of the policy makers and practitioners of diplomacy who strongly supported India's case to be a permanent member of UN Security Council. With a focus on the Look East policy, New Delhi is further strengthening relations with its immediate and extended neighbourhood. Apart from the developed economies, it needs to intensify discussions with the ASEAN countries and other regional groupings.For achieving this objective, peace in the neighbourhood is of paramount importance to pursue its national interests.