WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama has reaffirmed support for India's candidature for permanent membership of a reformed UN Security Council and considers continued strengthening of the relationship with New Delhi as a foreign policy "priority".
"I think what the President said was in the context of a reformed Security Council that the President would support the inclusion of India in that process. So that continues to be our policy and one that we are certainly aware of," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said yesterday.
He said Obama "certainly considers it a foreign policy priority to continue to strengthen that relationship" with India.
"The President genuinely enjoyed the visit that he had to India back in January and takes very seriously the kind of opportunities that exist in that friendship between the United States and the world's largest democracy in India," he added.
Obama had first voiced his support for a seat for India at the UN high table during his first visit to the country in 2010.
Earnest said the Washington-New Delhi relationship is one that continues to strengthen in a way that has "both national security benefits for both countries, but also in a way that has important economic benefits for both countries".
India, the world's largest democracy, and a rising economic and world power has said it is a rightful claimant to a permanent seat in the UN Security Council along with Japan, Germany and Brazil - the G4 group of nations.
Almost all veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France and Russia - have supported India's place in this most powerful organ of the UN.
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