US President George Bush on Thursday sidestepped a question on why Washington was not supporting India's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat, saying he first favoured reform of the world body.
"We're open-minded and we're listening. But what we don't want to do is have a Security Council reform measure that causes the other reforms not to go forward," he said at a joint press conference after his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
"We support United Nations Security Council reform, and we're interested in different ways to reform the United Nations Security Council. My concern all along, however, is that if we only stick to the United Nations Security Council reform, we miss an opportunity to reform the United Nations overall," Bush asserted.
"And so our position is, let's make sure reform overall moves forward, as we think about the best way to reform the Security Council," he added.
Noting that the UN "is a very important international body", he said it was one that required "better accountability and -- accountability on how we spend money and accountability on getting results.
{{/usCountry}}Noting that the UN "is a very important international body", he said it was one that required "better accountability and -- accountability on how we spend money and accountability on getting results.
{{/usCountry}}"One such area, for example, is the Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission needs to be reformed in a way that actually is able to achieve significant results on behalf of the world," Bush asserted.