Obama backs India’s drive for UN power

INDIA: US President Barack Obama Monday backed India’s quest for a permanent UN Security Council seat, inviting the world’s largest democracy to take its “rightful” place at the summit of global power.

In a symbolic climax of his three-day visit to a nation he hailed as an “indispensable” US partner, Obama delivered the foreign policy victory to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a landmark address to the Indian parliament.

The move on the Security Council seat, intensifying a haggling process on United Nations reform that could take years, will be seen as an incentive for a government Obama wants to see throw open its markets to US exports to create a vast American “job fair”.

“The just and sustainable international order that America seeks includes a United Nations that is efficient, effective, credible and legitimate,” Obama said, making a case that India was already an established global power.

“That is why I can say today in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member,” he said, drawing prolonged applause.

While there has been incremental US support for an Indian Security Council seat, Washington had previously stopped short of a full endorsement.

Currently, the Security Council’s five permanent members are the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain. As well as India, Japan, Brazil and Germany have expressed interest in joining.

However, US officials said they had yet to work out how a body born in the wreckage of World War II could be reformed to reflect new geopolitical realities, and said India may have to wait a “significant” time. Obama’s courtship of India, and current tour of Asia, reflect the rapid growth in India’s economy and a shift in power to emerging nations as a result of the global financial crisis, which has hit Western countries hard.

While praising India, Obama also challenged it to uphold the democratic ideals to which the former British colony owed its independence and rise to prominence. Obama also spoke about Pakistan, the key US anti-terror ally but arch-rival of India which accuses it of permitting extremist groups to plot cross-border strikes such as the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

“We’ll continue to insist to Pakistan’s leaders that terrorist safe havens within their borders are unacceptable, and that terrorists behind the Mumbai attacks must be brought to justice,” Obama said to applause.

Singh said the allies would now work as “equal partners in a strategic relationship”.

New Delhi, Tuesday, AFP