The United States wants India to get a permanent seat on a reformed United Nations Security Council, said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Region Alice Wells on Friday.
Wells said US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale who met Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on the sidelines of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly reaffirmed Washington’s faith in bilateral ties with India. “We really are global partners and the meeting [between Hale and Gokhale] reaffirmed our shared commitment to working together on international challenges – from a de-nuclearised Korean Peninsula to a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan,” Wells said during a briefing on US priorities in the South and Central Asia Region.
The meeting between Hale and Gokhale was a continuation of the discussion at the recent 2+2 meeting in Delhi. “It’s a conversation that really covers the map in terms of how we can work together in Afghanistan, what we are doing to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific and also in particular, how we are both very supportive of the democratic developments that we see transpiring in the Maldives,” said Wells.
In June 2017, a joint statement said that US President Donald Trump has supported India’s bid for a permanent seat in a reformed UN Security Council. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US have been permanent members of the council since it was formed in 1945. The UN General Assembly elects the remaining 10 members for two-year terms.
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