America
Obama reiterates support for India as UNSC member
Washington, April 8
President Barack Obama has
reiterated US support for India's membership of a reformed UN Security
Council as he considers it a foreign policy priority to continue to
strengthen India-US relationship.
"What the President said was
that he said in the context of a reformed Security Council that the
President would support the inclusion of India in that process," White
House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday.
"So
that continues to be our policy and one that we are certainly aware of,"
he said when asked about Obama's declaration of US support for India's
membership of the Security Council during his November 2010 visit to
India.
"The President, as we've talked about on a number of
occasions, genuinely enjoyed the visit that he had to India back in
January," Earnest said referring to Obama's historic visit to be the
guest of honour at India's Republic Day this year.
He "takes very
seriously the kind of opportunities that exist in that friendship
between the United States and the world's largest democracy in India,"
he said.
"And this is a relationship that continues to strengthen
in a way that has both national security benefits for both countries,
but also in a way that has important economic benefits for both
countries," Earnest said.
"And the President certainly considers it a foreign policy priority to continue to strengthen that relationship," he said.
Asked
about the future of the illegal immigrants after a US court stayed the
operation of Obama's executive action to temporarily protect from
deportation about five million illegal immigrants, including thousands
of Indians, Earnest said they were working through the legal system.
"We
continue to be working through the legal system to appeal the ruling of
the district court judge that prevented the implementation of some
aspects of the President's immigration executive actions," he said.
"And
that's a legal process that's ongoing. We continue to have very strong
confidence in the legal strength of those arguments."
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])