U.S. backs India seat on U.N. Security Council: Yes we can, but …

President Obama probably thought he was making a cost-free gesture today by
publicly backing a permanent seat for India on the U.N. Security Council.

The endorsement certainly went down well with his hosts, but he was stepping
into a diplomatic minefield that has been strewn with hazards for decades.
Pakistan, India’s regional rival for a permanent seat on an expanded Security
Council, predictably warned the U.S. against engaging in “power politics.”

The fact is that bestowing a permanent seat on India is not in Obama’s gift.
Expansion of the U.N. Security Council is the subject of debate in the U.N.
General Assembly, whose members, as you might expect, have failed to come up
with any solutions because of rival bids from within regional groupings.
Successive U.N. secretaries-general — in particular Kofi Annan — have tried,
and failed, to move the debate into an endgame.

Yet the Council, at present, is an anachronism. Its permanent members are the
“official” nuclear-weapons states — the U.S., U.K., Russia, China and
France. The remaining 10 members are elected every two years to rotating terms.
For some time now, Japan, India, Germany and Brazil have joined forces to lobby
for permanent seats — without success. Japan’s future membership is being
challenged by South Korea, India’s by Pakistan, Brazil by Argentina, South
Africa by Egypt, and Germany’s bid is opposed by Italy. The German position
also raises the question of why there should be a third European country with
permanent membership. Britain and France are totally opposed, of course, to any
suggestion of a single EU seat.

There has also been much discussion on what would happen to veto power in an
expanded Council of 24 members, and the permanent Five (or P5) are loath to
give theirs up.

So don’t hold your breath waiting for India to join the U.N. Security Council
as a permanent member. The reform of the Security Council is one of those
intractable issues where every endorsement should be taken with more than a
grain of salt. In other words: “Yes we can, but … ”