Rocca, experienced foreign policy professional

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 19. The U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush's intent to nominate Ms. Christina B. Rocca as the next Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, has brought to an end speculations on who is going to succeed Mr. Karl Inderfurth.

For a person who was generally seen as favouring career foreign service officers - or ``battalion commanders''- the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, was expected to recommend a known and experienced South Asia hand; and the name that prominently figured for a long time was that of Mr. Mathew Daley, currently in the Policy Planning Division of the State Department.

The other names doing the rounds at one time or the other included Mr. James Clad of Georgetown University, Ms. Elizabeth Jones, formerly a Special Adviser for the Caspian Basin and at present nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs and Mr.Alan Eastham, now the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs.

Ms. Rocca is seen as having her strength in Congressional relations; and is expected to use this to move legislations to rid some of the old sanctions regimes against India, going well beyond the Glenn Amendment measures that were slapped against India in the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests. Although in the immediate sense the focus is on the remaining aspects of the Glenn Amendment sanctions, there are several restrictions on India accumulated over a period of time that need to be looked at seriously.

Ms. Rocca ``knows her way around'' Capitol Hill and she has worked with Senator Sam Brownback, a law-maker widely respected for his strengths in foreign policy especially as it related to South Asia. The Kansas Republican Chairs the Senate Sub Committee on Near East and South Asia of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr.Brownback is one of those law-makers who were constantly urging the Clinton administration to have a broad based approach to India and South Asia and not peg the bilateral relationship to only contentious nuclear issues.

In the last two years or so, Ms. Rocca has been the Congressional liaison with the administration on the subject of sanctions and had been a principal participant during the course of two Brownback amendments that gave the President waivers for sanctions imposed against India. The criticism on Capitol Hill is that the White House had not fully taken advantage of the Congressional waivers.

Those dealing with South Asian affairs see Ms. Rocca as serious and professionally interested in the region with a deep and engaging interest in foreign affairs overall. An experienced foreign policy professional, she is seen as having a regional perspective as opposed to an interest in one or two countries in South Asia.

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