Did America support India’s permanent membership?
In fact, in some media reports, a senior US official was quoted as saying that Biden has supported India, Japan and Germany to be made permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The report did not mention the name of the US official. Biden said during his speech that members of the Security Council, including the United States, should defend the Charter of the United Nations and use the veto only in very difficult circumstances, so that the Council’s credibility and effectiveness should be maintained. Biden’s reference to this was towards Russia and China, who use the veto to block almost every demand of America.
America ready to expand UNSC for the first time
Talking to the BBC, former diplomat DP Srivastava told many nuances of Joe Biden’s speech at the UNSC. DP Srivastava has been the Ambassador of India to Iran and the Czech Republic. Apart from this, he has worked on the UN Desk in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. He said that Biden’s statement to the United Nations Security Council is very important. He told the BBC that when the discussion on this topic started in the United Nations in the 90s, at that time I was the director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I used to deal with this topic. At that time the US was not ready for the expansion of the UNSC. Today Joe Biden himself is speaking that the Security Council should be expanded.
Understand Biden’s statement closely from former diplomat
DP Srivastava explained the nuances of Biden’s statement. He said that Biden has referred to the term permanent seat, not permanent membership. There is a vast difference between these two. According to him, the permanent seat is often used for African countries which is rotational. This means that only the countries of a region or class will be made members on this seat and it will always remain with different countries of that region or class, not just one country. Just in this statement of Biden, this confusion remains.
Confusion over giving veto power to new member of UNSC
Biden also expressed concern over the use of the UN Security Council’s veto power in his speech. There has been talk in the past that new permanent members may not be given veto power. If this power is not with the new members then they will not be able to be as powerful as the old members. Not only this, he will be able to become a member of the United Nations Security Council just to say the least. In such a situation, permanent membership without veto power will be of no use and the member countries will be to be counted like temporary members.