NEW DELHI: Making amends for a dig in a leaked diplomatic cable at New Delhi’s desire for a permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, US Ambassador Timothy Roemer on Tuesday said his country welcomed ‘a greater global leadership role for India.’
One of the leaked memos from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had referred to the group of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan as ‘self-appointed frontrunners’ for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
But, on his recent Delhi visit -- months after the Hillary cable -- US President Barack Obama indicated his country’s backing for that.
As he tried to contain the fallout in India of disclosures by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, Roemer indirectly referred to Obama’s public commitment.
"The United States welcomes a greater global leadership role for India and values its perspectives on how to meet common challenges, including countering terrorism, securing our maritime domains, and working together to promote democratic, political and economic development around the world,’’ he said.
Like that of many other countries, India’s reaction to the embarrassing WikiLeaks revelations was restrained. ‘’We would prefer not to comment on the issue of WikiLeaks which purportedly are an account of privileged internal US Government assessments and correspondence,’’ Foreign Office spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.
"We have a multi-faceted and forward-looking strategic partnership with the United States and there is a regular, open and candid dialogue between the two countries, on a number of matters of mutual interest,’’ he said.