New Delhi, Jan 15 : Backing stronger ties between both countries, Uruguay's Ambassador to India, Alberto Antonio Guani Amarilla, on Thursday welcomed India's plan to open an Embassy in Montevideo, later this year. In an interview with IANS, Amarilla also called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "very influential leader" and praised him for raising issues facing the Global South on world stage.

When asked how he sees ties between India and Uruguay, the Ambassador said, "I would say that I am very happy because we are in a very important moment of this relationship that is already 75 years old. We are about to start new ways of getting together. One of them is that India is going to open an Embassy in Montevideo, probably in June, and we are expecting (External Affairs) Minister Jaishankar to be visiting Uruguay for that occasion."

The Embassy of India in Argentina's Buenos Aires is concurrently accredited to Uruguay. Diplomatic ties between India and Uruguay were established in 1960. Uruguay has an Embassy in New Delhi and an Honorary Consulate in Mumbai.

Asked about his opinion of PM Modi's global leadership, Amarilla stated, "He has been a very influential leader. He has taken also what are the views of the Global South and are very proud that he is taking care of all these issues and would like him to have a more preponderant role."

Amarilla said Uruguay is considering visa relaxation for Indians. However, he mentioned that Uruguay has not received any special request from India on this issue.

"The issue is that we are thinking that it will be very important to facilitate the travelling of Indians to Uruguay, and for that reason we need to address that, and probably it's something we can do in our political consultations in March of this year here in Delhi."

He expressed Uruguay's support for India's aspiration to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). India is actively seeking a permanent seat in the UNSC. Several nations like France and Russia have expressed support for India's bid for permanent UNSC membership.

"We do support it (India's bid). We do not support the fact that new members stay with a veto or have veto. We don't want the veto in the United Nations, but we fully support the Indian intention and purpose to be a permanent member."

/IANS