The just and sustainable international order that America seeks includes a United Nations that is efficient, effective, credible and legitimate. That is why I can say today — in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed U.N. Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.
The Associated Press plays down the announcement, calling it a "diplomatic gesture," and The New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg stresses the time and difficulties ahead.
Still, this is huge.
The announcement not only recognizes, as Obama said, that "India has emerged," but also signals a willingness to discuss in a realignment of the Council that inevitably would engage all the countries of the world -- the many other aspirants to a "P-" seat as well the other "-4" who've held that plum since 1945.
