New Delhi on Saturday strongly pitched for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. This will give a greater and important role to India 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 neighborhood and India's role at global role 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. So he observed that the nature of international relations is also changing. He said India needs to anchor this shift in balance of power towards itself. Menon also stressed on the need to develop an Indian way of looking at international relations.

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. He said a closer scrutiny was required for looking into availability of archival records for academic analysis in the field of international relations.

The Vice President said the study of international affairs was needed to conceptualise India's experience as a player on the global stage.