US, India dismiss reports linking Kashmir with UNSC seat

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 1 (PTI) The US has categorically
denied there is any link between resolving the Kashmir issue
with the Obama Administration endorsing India's bid for a
permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
"I don't see a link between the two," State Department
spokesman P J Crowley told reporters when asked about reports
that the Obama Administration has linked its endorsement for
the UNSC seat with India resolving the Kashmir dispute.
"We want to see India and Pakistan work collectively
together to resolve tensions regarding Kashmir. We understand
that India and a number of countries and the US are all so
interested in UN reform, including reforms within the Security
Council. Those are conversations which are ongoing with a wide
range of countries," Crowley said.
The State Department spokesman said that issue of
India getting a permanent seat in the UNSC would come up in
the ongoing dialogue with India.
"I can't predict whether it will come up in November
(when the US President visits India)," he added.
Earlier, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon
has said that as far as New Delhi was concerned, things were
moving in the right direction for India to get a permanent
seat at the UN Security Council.
"As far as we are concerned in terms of distance or
the gap of the world's attitude towards the UNSC reform and
what we consider the desirable outcome that gap has steadily
narrowed," Menon said in response to a question at Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace.
He said meaningful negotiations were going on in the
UN on not just Security Council reform but the reform of the
UN itself.
"That's the real prospects. How the US chooses to do
this, when the US chooses to do this, it is for the US to
decide. We have made our views known, I do not think, we are
shying away, they (the US) know what we expect," Menon said.
Early this week, India has rebutted a media report
that the US has linked UNSC permanent seat with finding a
solution for the Kashmir imbroglio.
There were media reports that President Obama would be
carrying the message on his visit to India that settling the
Kashmir issue was the key to getting a permanent seat at UNSC.
Dismissing reports as speculative, official sources
said India was eminently qualified to become a UNSC permanent
member and there was no possible link with the Kashmir issue.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had said in New York
that while the US was not fully sold on the idea of becoming a
permanent member of the UNSC, there has been positive movement
in that direction.
"I am not saying we have reached the destination of
full American support for our case but certainly we are moving
from divergence to greater convergence," she said. PTI LKJ
AHM