India’s UNSC endorsement: US begins to douse fires

Washington/New York: A week after president Barack Obama's dramatic announcement endorsing India's candidacy for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, the United States now finds itself dousing a few fires around the globe– fires of expectations, of resentment and even fear.

Refusing to allow itself to be cowed down by vociferous protests from Pakistan, in particular, India has already responded cheekily enough by saying that it fully expected to resolve the UNSC reforms process in the coming two years and continue its tenure in the Security Council on a permanent basis. 

India steps into the Security Council in January 2010 after being elected to that body with a near-record vote from the community of nations.

With Pakistan raising the loudest howl, and resentments beginning to surface around the globe in China, Germany, Japan and Brazil, the US state department's point man for the president's India visit, assistant secretary of state Robert Blake, got down to the task of minimising the impact of the announcement yesterday.

First, Blake said his country did not expect any breakthroughs with regard to UNSC reforms ''anytime soon''.

"I would caution against expecting any kind of breakthrough anytime soon," he told journalists in New York and Washington in the course of a video press conference.