WASHINGTON: Go for a Kashmir solution and help bring stability to the region, in return for a ticket to UN Security Council membership and fulfilling your big power aspirations. That's the broad message President Barack Obama will be bringing to New Delhi during his November visit to India, preparation for which is in full swing in Washington DC.
The Kashmir settlement-for-seat at high table idea (euphemism for UNSC membership) is being discussed animatedly at the highest levels of the US administration, according to sources. President Obama himself has decided to revive the process of a US push in this direction, albeit discreetly.
Key administration officials are confirming that the UNSC issue will be on Obama's agenda when he visits New Delhi. The US President is expected to announce an incremental American support to India's candidature during his address to the joint session of India's parliament, depending on New Delhi's receptiveness.
"UNSC reforms is something that is under discussion as we prepare for the President's visit," US assistant secretary of state Robert Blake confirmed on Monday after the meeting between secretary of state Hillary Clinton and S M Krishna, saying the two had agreed the "President's visit will be a defining moment in the history of our bilateral relations."
The clearest insight into Obama's thinking comes from Bob Woodward's new book "Obama's War" in which top US policy-makers are shown mulling on defusing the Kashmir situation as part of an exit strategy for the US from the Af-Pak theatre.
Implicit in the rumination is the idea that settling Kashmir would mollify Pakistan, where, US officials say, hardliners are using the unresolved issue as an excuse to breed an army of terrorists aimed at bleeding India.
According to Bruce Riedel, author of the AfPak strategy, who has canvassed the centrality of the Kashmir issue to peace and stability in the region. The solution Washington has in mind is likely more palatable to New Delhi than to Islamabad. It's on the same lines of what PM Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's deposed military leader Pervez Musharraf broadly agreed: The Line of Control would become the international border, but it would be a soft, permeable border, allowing Kashmiris on both sides to move back and forth.
Obama's pitch: Fix Kashmir for UN Security Council seat
The Kashmir settlement-for-seat at high table idea (euphemism for UNSC membership) is being discussed animatedly at the highest levels of the US administration, according to sources. President Obama himself has decided to revive the process of a US push in this direction, albeit discreetly.
Key administration officials are confirming that the UNSC issue will be on Obama's agenda when he visits New Delhi. The US President is expected to announce an incremental American support to India's candidature during his address to the joint session of India's parliament, depending on New Delhi's receptiveness.
"UNSC reforms is something that is under discussion as we prepare for the President's visit," US assistant secretary of state Robert Blake confirmed on Monday after the meeting between secretary of state Hillary Clinton and S M Krishna, saying the two had agreed the "President's visit will be a defining moment in the history of our bilateral relations."
The clearest insight into Obama's thinking comes from Bob Woodward's new book "Obama's War" in which top US policy-makers are shown mulling on defusing the Kashmir situation as part of an exit strategy for the US from the Af-Pak theatre.
Implicit in the rumination is the idea that settling Kashmir would mollify Pakistan, where, US officials say, hardliners are using the unresolved issue as an excuse to breed an army of terrorists aimed at bleeding India.
According to Bruce Riedel, author of the AfPak strategy, who has canvassed the centrality of the Kashmir issue to peace and stability in the region. The solution Washington has in mind is likely more palatable to New Delhi than to Islamabad. It's on the same lines of what PM Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's deposed military leader Pervez Musharraf broadly agreed: The Line of Control would become the international border, but it would be a soft, permeable border, allowing Kashmiris on both sides to move back and forth.
Obama's pitch: Fix Kashmir for UN Security Council seat