A headline from The Hindu dated 12 November, states ‘Obama's offer insignificant, says T.P. Sreenivasan’. In view of this article, our reporter asked TPS whether he means to say that Obama's visit to India is insignificant. We are publishing Sreenivasan's response and the link to The Hindu report. The link of an article on President Obama's visit to India by TPS is given below.

T.P. Sreenivasan is the Former Ambassador of India, and a member of the National Security Advisory Board, New Delhi.  

Was Obama's offer on the Security Council
Insignificant?
T.P. Sreenivasan responds…

The Hindu story on my speech was fairly accurate when it stated that "the offer was significant to the extent that the US President had said it."  But the story did not warrant a headline that the Obama offer on the Security Council was "insignificant". Nothing that a US President says to the Indian Parliament can be characterised as "insignificant". In this case we can expect that the US will not veto India. My point was that the US position by itself will not secure us the seat. Two thirds majority of the General Assembly has to support and ratify any proposal to change the composition of the Council.

The statement of President Obama was a paraphrase of the consensus position in the UN that if ever there is an expansion of the permanent membership of the Security Council, India will be in it. He said nothing more, nothing less. What is required is an agreement on the size and nature of the expansion. The Obama statement offers no help in that direction. In other words, the Obama statement is significant, but it will not lead immediately to India becoming a permanent member of the Security Council.

As for the visit of President Obama, it was historic because it altered the very architecture of the relations between the two countries. My assessment of the visit may be seen in my Rediff article:"The Obama Visit: A Balance Sheet."

Reference Links:
http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/12/stories/2010111252880500.htm
http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/nov/09/obama-visit-what-did-indias-gain.htm