If elected, Biden will help India get UNSC permanent seat: Aide

Washington, July 19

Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, if elected to power in the November elections, will help shape international bodies like the United Nations so that India gets a permanent seat on the Security Council, a former top American diplomat has said.

“There’s no question that under his (Biden) leadership, he would help shape international institutions like the UN to give India a (permanent) seat on the Security Council, he would fulfil its (India) status as a major defence partner,” former US Ambassador to India Richard Verma said on Saturday.

The UNSC has 15 members, including five permanent members — the US, the UK, France, Russia and China. China is the only permanent member of the UNSC which is opposed to India’s inclusion into the powerful grouping. Half of the 10 non-permanent members are elected every year for a two-year term. India, along with Mexico and Ireland, has been recently elected a non-permanent member for a two-year term starting January 1, 2021.

Verma said, “He (Biden) would work together with India to keep our citizens collectively safe. That means standing up against cross-border terrorism and standing with India when its neighbours attempt to change the status quo.” “There’s no question president Biden would build a more inclusive, tolerant just and fair administration that would take US-India relations to new heights,” Verma said.

He urged the Indian-American community to make Biden’s dream of making India and the US the two closest nations in the world a reality. Verma, an Indian-American who was US ambassador to India from 2014 to 2017, joined three other prominent Indian-Americans to make a strong pitch for the small but highly influential community to support and vote for Biden in the US presidential elections.

The 77-year-old former US vice-president is set to be formally nominated by the Democratic Party in August. He will challenge 74-year-old incumbent President Donald Trump, a Republican in the November 3 presidential elections. Verma, Biden Unity Task Force Economic Policy adviser Sonal Shah, former US surgeon general Vivek Murthy and Centre for American Progress Action Fund CEO Neera Tanden in their address to a virtual event claimed that over the past several decades, Biden had a proven track record of being the best friend of Indians and Indian-Americans. — PTI