US President Joe Biden supports India, Germany and Japan as permanent members of reformed UNSC: White House

Washington: US President Joe Biden supports India, Japan and Germany as permanent members of a reformed United Nations Security Council, a White House official said.

"We have historically and continue to stand behind the idea that Germany, Japan and India should be permanent members of the Security Council," the official of the Biden administration said.

Notably, France has repeatedly committed to support India's bid for permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is in the US for an official visit, said that the transformation of the United Nations Security Council is "overdue" and India not sitting as a permanent member of the powerful global body is "not good for us" only but also not good for the organisation.

In a conversation with Columbia University Professor and former vice chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya at the Raj Centre at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, Jaishankar said, "It's obviously a very hard task because at the end of the day, if you say what is a definition of our global order. The five permanent members are a very crucial definition of what the global order is about. So it's a very fundamental, very deep transformation that we are seeking."

"It's obviously a very hard task because at the end of the day, if you say what is a definition of our global order. The five permanent members are a very crucial definition of what the global order is about. So it's a very fundamental, very deep transformation that we are seeking.

"We believe that transformation is overdue, because the UN is a product that was devised eighty years ago. And 80 years ago by any standards of human creativity is a long time ago. The number of independent countries have quadrupled in that period," the EAM said.

As per the present set up, the UNSC comprises five permanent members the USA, Russia, the UK, China, and France. These nations can veto any substantive resolution.

Several countries have been demanding to increase the number of permanent members in the UNSC.