US President Joe Biden's nominee for the ambassador to the United Nations was uncertain about India's future as a permanent member of the Security Council. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on Wednesday, did not explicitly commit the support of the new US administration for India's membership.
Previous administrations of Doland Trump, Barack Obama, and George W Bush had on record supported India's bid to be a permanent member of the Council. However, Thomas-Greenfield, who has spent more than 35 years in foreign service before being nominated to the position, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told lawmakers that this is a matter of ongoing discussion.
“Do you think India, Germany, Japan, should be (permanent) members (of the UN Security Council),” Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon asked during her confirmation hearing for the position of the US Ambassador to the UN.
Biden has named it as a Cabinet-ranking position. “I think there has been some discussions about them being members of the Security Council and there are some strong arguments for that,” she said.
“But I also know that there are others who disagree within their regions that they should be the representative of their region. That, too, is an ongoing discussion,” she said in an apparent reference to the Coffee Club or United for Consensus.
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