US, India to engage East Asia
US President Barack Obama’s support for India leaves China as the only Permanent-5 holdout not to support India’s quest for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
The P-5 consists of Russia (which agreed to India’s candidature “in principle”), France, Britain, the US and China.
Currently inter-governmental text based negotiations are on but from New Delhi’s perspective, the real hurdle may come only after the 192-member General Assembly approves the proposal because the P-5 will then be required to vote on it, and any one of the P-5 could veto it.
PM Manmohan Singh and Obama had a detailed exchanged on East Asia — a euphemism for China and its not-so peaceful rise.
Briefing journalists after the talks, Dr Singh said, “We have a shared vision of security, stability and prosperity in Asia based on an open and inclusive regional architecture.”
For his part, Obama said India and the US have agreed to deepen their consultations on East Asia and to expand their bilateral strategic dialogue to include global issues.
Later, addressing Parliament, Mr Obama said a vigorous engagement by India with Southeast and East Asian nations enhance “security and prosperity of all our nations”.
“Like your neighbours in Southeast Asia, we want India to not only look East, we want India to engage East,” Mr Obama noted.
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