IndiaPost.com - US Congress supports India's inclusion

NEW YORK: Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has introduced H. Res. 638 which expresses the House of Representatives' desire that the UN should amend Article 23 of the Charter to establish India as a permanent member of the Security Council. Interestingly, Congressman Bilirakis has written an editorial in the Washington Times expressing his support for the same.

"India is an important ally of the United States and the world community. Their enormous role in mediating and contributing to global peacekeeping missions combined with their ever-evolving economic prowess and democratic institutions, makes them a natural fit as a permanent member of the Security Council," says Congressman Bilirakis.

"This issue is very significant in the eyes of the Indian-American community as grassroots efforts in the past have shown us. A previous USINPAC online petition drive in support of India gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council resulted in over 50,000 signatures. The importance of and support for this issue, however, goes well beyond Indian-Americans and is really a fundamental American foreign policy and global concern of first importance, and we applaud Congressman Bilirakis' key leadership on this critical issue," says Sanjay Puri, Chairman of the US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC).

"The highly respected USINPAC is an effective voice for the interests of the Indian Diaspora here in the United States," says Congressman Bilirakis. "They have long pointed out the benefits of reforming the UN by realigning the Security Council to reflect today's global landscape, particularly with respect to the one-billion strong democracy of India." Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI-11), Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, is a cosponsor of H. Res. 638.

"The burgeoning strategic partnership between the Great Democracies of the United States and India will be the transformational Twenty-First Century alliance of free peoples," says Congressman McCotter. "This is the compelling reason India must become a voting member of the UN Security Council; and why the hard work of our Indian-American community to achieve this critical goal through USINPAC is of immense importance to the shared destinies of both nations and all the world."