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Rediff.com  » News » Gadhafi against inclusion of India, Pakistan in UNSC

Gadhafi against inclusion of India, Pakistan in UNSC

By Betwa Sharma
September 25, 2009 03:03 IST
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Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has opposed the expansion of the United Nations Security Council by including countries like India which would spur a 'competition' with nations like Pakistan wanting to get in.

In his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly, Gadhafi said that Security Council reform does not mean increasing the member states in the powerful body.

"It will just make things worse...," Gadhafi, who is also the president of the African Union, said.

Opening the doors of the UNSC for big powers would "add more poverty, more injustice, more tension at the world level", the maverick Libyan leader said.

"There would be high competition between Italy, Germany, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Japan, Argentina, Brazil...," Gadhafi, attired in a long brown robe, said during his more than one-and-a-half-hour-long address.

Seeking equality among member states, he noted that since India and Pakistan were both nuclear powers, if India had a seat then Pakistan would want one as well. "We reject having more seats," he said since it would give "rise to more superpowers, crush the small people."

He also called the Security Council a "council of terror," and demanded a compensation of $ 7.77 trillion for African nations for centuries of colonisation.

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Betwa Sharma in United Nations
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