Obama kept support for India's UN Security Council bid secret till last: US media

US President Barack Obama kept his endorsement of India's bid for a permanent membership of the UN Security Council secret till minutes before he rose to address the Indian Parliament, as his move was splashed on front pages of American newspapers today.

"Obama had kept the move close to his chest even till the last moment and it was not clear until shortly before his parliamentary address that Obama would call for India to join an expanded council on a permanent basis," The Washington Post reported.

The support received endorsement from the media too which viewed it as a move to counter China.

The papers, who carried Obama's support announced in a speech in the Indian Parliament on the front pages, said that it emphasised Washington's efforts to deepen its economic and defence relationship with the world's biggest democracy.

While backing the president's move, the Washington Post cautioned that endorsement does not set a time frame for when India would secure a permanent Security Council seat. Nor does it offer any guarantee that India would secure such a seat.

The New York Times on the other hand said that Obama backed India for the UNSC to counter China. "The Obama move is aimed at countering China."

"By endorsing India for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, President Obama on Monday signalled the United States' intention to create a deeper partnership of the world's two largest democracies that would expand commercial ties and check the influence of an increasingly assertive China," the daily said.

The Times warned that the move is likely to set off fresh concerns in Beijing, which has had a contentious relationship with India and has expressed alarm at American efforts to tighten alliances with Asian nations wary of China's rising power.

"India has campaigned hard for a UN seat, long a subtext of a warming India and US relationship. Obama embraced the idea in a speech to India's parliament that emphasised Washington's efforts to deepen its economic and defense relationship with the world's biggest democracy," The Post said.

The Post also said that India was offered a permanent seat on the council 55 years ago, in 1955. "But that offer, made by the United States and the Soviet Union, was declined by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru said the seat should be given to China instead," it said.

The Los Angeles Times said Obama's pledge is "only a step" in direction of new international stature for India.

"The endorsement, though of little practical value at the moment, is aimed at boosting relations with India, and is a signal of the administration's vision of Asia at a time when China's influence is growing," it said.

"The move is a signal from Obama about how the United States sees Asia's future. The administration has been working to strengthen the partnership with India at a time when both countries want to counter a more assertive China," it said.

'US courts New Delhi, presses Pakistan talks', said The Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) page one headline yesterday, while today it said 'US backs India seat on UN Council.

In its report, WSJ quoted under-secretary of state for political affairs William Burns as saying that Washington has not laid out any actual plan for a reformed Security Council and that it would take "significant" time to work it out. Burns wouldn't say whether the US backed veto power for India.

"Expanding the Security Council would entail changing the UN charter, which in turn, in the US, would have to be ratified by the Senate," it said, adding the gesture was long-sought by India and greeted warmly by the Indian Parliament. said that Obama backed India for the UNSC to counter China.

The UNSC is made up of 15 members, five permanent and 10 rotating non-permanent members with two-year tenure each.

Reputed media organisation NPR echoed the view that India's entry as a permanent member of the UN Security Council is not "likely to happen anytime soon."

In an article titled 'Security Council won't make room for India yet,' NPR quoted Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation as saying that "the president's strong support is more symbolic than real because there's no chance of UN Security Council reform in the near term."

The idea of expanding the Security Council has been a topic of "perennial discussion" since the end of the Cold War.

NPR said with Germany, Japan and Brazil too wanting permanent seats, "expanding the roster to include any or all of them would have to take into account regional rivalries that make the task of expansion enormously difficult. The current members of the club would have to be willing to share power, too."

It said the Security Council's permanent membership has never been altered since the founding of the UN in 1945 and changing its makeup is a discussion topic that has gotten nowhere.

"This is the longest conversation in which the most diplomatic energy has been spent to go absolutely nowhere," co-director of the UN Intellectual History Project at the City University of New York, Thomas Weiss, said in the NPR report.

"It will make good headlines — it will make us seem like India's best friends. But the administration can assure Islamabad no movement will occur," Weiss added, referring to India's arch-rival Pakistan.

"Each region of the world will fight jealously to have its own representation on the Security Council before allowing newcomers from elsewhere to hold a permanent seat."