New Delhi. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has called for renewed efforts by India to gain permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

Interacting with the Officer Trainees of the 2018 Batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Bhutanese Diplomats in New Delhi on May 28, the Vice President referred to the growing prominence of India on the world stage and underscored the need for enhancing support from world nations and building a sustained dialogue in favor of UNSC reforms.

The Vice President also stressed the need to build a consensus for expansion and democratization of a number of multilateral fora to ensure representation to a number of other emerging nations.

Congratulating the young officers for choosing IFS as a profession, Shri Naidu said that the Service offered a challenging and exciting career and a unique opportunity to take India’s great civilizational and cultural ethos with its developmental aspirations to the rest of the world.

Terming the young diplomats as ‘future spokespersons, interpreters, and narrators of India’s story to the world’, the Vice President said that they would soon work on constructing new bridges of understanding between India and the rest of the world. ‘You can play an important role in shaping the geopolitics of the future and in determining the new world order’, he told them.

Shri Naidu cautioned that the return of the unwelcome tendency of protectionism would adversely impact the global effort for collective advancement. Despite the acknowledged need for an Integrated World Order, new walls are being to the free flow of goods and services and people as well, he added.

Outlining the challenges the budding diplomats would have to deal with, Shri Naidu expressed his concern over the threat posed by terrorism. Observing that no country was immune to the consequences of terrorism, he called for a united response from world nations to curb the menace of terrorism.

Pointing out that India consistently took an unrelenting and uncompromising stand against terrorism, he said, “we must continue to be champions of peace”.

Referring to the unethical acts of financial fugitives, the Vice President expressed his concern over the ease with which they find safe havens in other countries. He suggested the constant updating and overhauling of Extradition Treaties and all bilateral and multilateral agreements to defend and safeguard the integrated global economic order for the collective good.

The Vice President said that the world community would need India’s participation to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, because of the problems faced by the planet today needed a humane and holistic vision. The world needs India because it needs a voice that speaks of peace, non-violence and peaceful co-existence.

Expressing his happiness that India took the lead in building sustainable development solutions, he said the International Solar Alliance launched under India’s initiative in Paris was such an example.

Stating that India was moving on the development path swiftly, Shri Naidu said that the world was looking at India with keen interest. He emphasized the need to take advantage of this momentum by capitalizing on opportunities in areas of trade, services, investments, and infrastructure. “Diplomats must be proactive in enabling Indian industries and business to tap into world markets and must do their best in encouraging foreign investment to flow into India”, he stressed.

Describing the Indian Diaspora as an asset, he said they play an important role culturally as well as economically in the countries they live in.

The Vice President urged the young officers to develop a deep understanding of the countries of their posting and explore all opportunities for improving relations between those countries and India. He advised them to uphold the principles of Integrity, Probity, and conscientiousness at all times. He asked them to be India’s articulate voices, proactive catalysts of India’s prosperity and relentless advocates of Indian values of peaceful coexistence, inclusive and sustainable development.

Referring to the recently concluded General Elections 2019, the Vice President said that people had made their choice with resounding clarity and had voted for stability.

The Secretary to the Vice President of India, Dr. I.V. Subba Rao, the Dean, Foreign Services Institute (FSI), Shri J.S. Mukul, the Joint Secretary, FSI, Shri Virendra Paul, the Course Coordinator, Shri. Amarnath Dube and others were present on the occasion.