Military spending calculated as a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 2.4 per cent for India, an estimated 1.6 per cent for China, 2.6 per cent for Pakistan.

The root cause in the view of India and many countries is the architecture of the Council that reflects the post-World War II scenario and gives veto-wielding permanent seats to the five victorious allies - Britain, China, France, the United States and Russia, which hold the seat originally given to the Soviet Union.

Lavrov said that the United States and the West were against a multipolar world and wanted their dominance to continue.

Posing a dilemma for India in joining a “Quintet” is that the four countries in the Quartet have the makings of a distinct anti-West grouping and two of them, Pakistan and China, are hostile to New Delhi.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Munir Akram struck a discordant note by opposing the addition of permanent members to the Council.  China's Permanent Representative Zhang Jun supported calls for reforming international financial institutions but was silent on the Council -- opposing it would have roiled the African nations that form the…

There are about 4,000 Indian citizens in Sudan, and according to the Indian embassy in Khartoum of them, about 1,500 are longtime residents. An Indian ex-serviceman. Albert Augustine, who was working in Sudan, was killed by a stray bullet as he was speaking to his son while standing at the window of his apartment.

The challenges for India, she said, are “there's so many people that are in the informal labour market. Again, educational standards are highly uneven – if you go north to south, south to north in India, we see tremendous diversity within such a large country”.

Secret documents floating in social media and chat groups showed that the administration of President Joe Biden has been spying on UN officials as well as other international leaders, including US allies.

The official praised Sikh community leaders who condemned the violence and said the arrests do not “in any way reflect or represent a vibrant Sikh community that is such an important and vital part of the greater community in this region”

Safeguards Defenders, a Spain-based human rights NGO that first drew attention to the Chinese overseas “police stations” last year, listed operations in 30 countries in North and South Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia (but not in India or other South Asian countries).