The countries that have made the strongest demands for permanent seats are Brazil, Germany, India and Japan. Japan and Germany are the UN'ssecond and third largest fund contributors, respectively, while Brazil, the largest Latin American nation, and India, the world'slargest democracy and second most populous country, are two of the largest contributors of troops to UN-mandated peace-keeping missions.
In 1953 or so India was offered China'spermanent seat in the UNSC then held by Taiwan but Jawaharlal Nehru rejected it saying that it was an American effort to marginalise the Communist China. In his book Nehru: The Invention of India Shashi Tharoor, a former UN Under-Secretary has also confirmed that Nehru turned down a US offer for India to take Permanent Seat in the Security Council held by Taiwan, and Nehru urged that it be offered to Beijing instead. So India missed a golden opportunity to be in the UNSC as a Permanent Member with veto.
On July 26, 2005, five UN Member countries, Argentina, Italy, Canada, Colombia and Pakistan, representing a larger group of countries called ?Uniting for Consensus?, proposed to General Assembly another plan that maintains five Permanent Members, and raises the number of Non-Permanent Members to 20 from 10. On April 11, 2005, China had ?endorsed? this proposal.
In view of stiff opposition offered behind the curtain by the People'sRepublic of China and open opposition of the members of the Coffee Club, Japan panicked and offered to accept Permanent Membership without veto power or that Japan would not exercise veto power for many initial years. Such dilutions were not acceptable to India and to African aspirants.
Despite forging the so-called strategic alliance with the USA, and, despite having agreed to curtail military application of nuclear technology in India under the unequal Indo-US nuclear deal, the UPA government failed to get Bush presidency support for Indian case for Permanent Membership with veto power.
At the recent conclave of foreign ministers of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) held in May 2008 at Yekaterinburg, Russia, China refused to endorse Russian proposal of supporting India'sbid for a permanent seat in the UNSC in the joint communiqu? issued at the end of this meeting.
