The State Department refrained from endorsing any new countries for permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council in the backdrop of a new report released by a U.N. working group. The report, which was released formally on Dec. 2 but was leaked earlier in the week, recommends expanding the Council to include India and several other countries as permanent members but without the veto power.

“Our view is that we’ll take a look at it. We’ll study it carefully. We’ll talk to other members of the United Nations, and when we have something to say on it, we’ll say it. That’s not today,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher at a briefing on Nov. 30.

Though several high officials have over the years made approving noises on India seeking a permanent seat, the U.S. administration has not outrightly endorsed India’s inclusion.

India has been jockeying for a permanent seat and allegedly trying to get some quid pro-quos for Washington’s support, but so far neither the Bush administration nor any before it have made an outright commitment to further New Delhi’s goals. Boucher did concede that Washington would not mind some countries coming into the Security Council as permanent members.

“The United States believes that we should take a serious look at this report, that it was a very useful effort and contribution to the thinking that’s going on about many aspects of reform at the United Nations, and that as we study it we’ll talk to other governments involved and concerned about the issues, and when we have something more to say in public we’ll say it,” Boucher maintained, but he conceded, “Japan is the only country we’ve publicly endorsed...”

In Washington, Indian Americans have been trying to further New Delhi’s case in Congress. In Feb. 2003, Rep. Frank Pallone, founder of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, introduced House Resolution 108, expressing the sense of the House that India should be a permanent member of the Security Council.

It was referred to the House International Relations Committee and to date has 16 co-sponsors most of whom signed on in

March 2003:

They are: Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA), Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO), Rep. Joseph Crowley

(D-NY), Rep. Eliot Engel, (D-NY), Rep.

Mark Foley (R-FL), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), Rep. Jim

Matheson (D-UT), Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-NY), Rep Janice D. Schakowsky, (D-IL), Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), and Rep. Albert Russell

Wynn (D-MD).