New Delhi
24 June 2005
The Bush administration says India and the US are on the verge of
creating a new strategic partneship, the contours of which would be unveiled when Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh meets with the American President on July 18, but remains
non-committal on extending outright support to New Delhi's candidacy for a permanent
seat in an expanded United Nations Security Council.
"We would like to quicken the pace and make more progress in our strategic relationship
... [which] would be fundamentally different from that of the last 58 years," US Under
Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, told media persons after a three-and-a-half-hour-long
delegation-level meeting with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran followed by a one-on-one
intercation between the two.
He says President George W Bush is "very much looking forward to host" Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh which, according to him, would be "one of the most
consequential" summit meetings. Referring to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's trip
to the US, he says the expanding defence and security relationship would come to
include cooperation in advance weaponry, missile defence and civilian nuclear energy.
However, on the issue of India's bid for a permanent seat in the UNSC, Mr Burns
stopped short of extending wholehearted support like it did in the case of Japan. "India,"
he says, "meets the test of being supremely well qualified" but a lot would depend on
"how the debate unfolds in New York". He nevertheless feels Asia has not been
"overrepresented" in the UNSC and that India has a perfect right to stake its claim.
(Ministry of External Affairs sources said Mr Burns conveyed to Mr Saran that while India
meets the criteria laid down by the US, whom Washington chooses would be a political
question on which a decision would be taken by President Bush.)
He told reporters the US was amenable to a "modest" and "pragmatic" expansion of the
UNSC that would include two or so permanent members and two or three non-permanent
members. The US, he explains, wants to bridge the gap between the positions held by
the G-4 and the 'Coffee Club' for a "realistic chance of success" when the matter comes
up for vote in the UN General Assembly.
Clarifying that the US was not attempting to divide the G-4 by supporting Japan and
limiting the expansion of the UNSC by "two or so", the official felt inclusion of six new
permanent members "might diminish the effectiveness of the Security Council". A more
flexible position, he added, would be to limit its expansion.
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