U.S. for strategic ties with India

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JULY 21. The Bush administration has made it known that the United States desires a strategic relationship with India in both economic and security terms.

``The relationship obviously is one that the President thinks is very important for the U.S. It reflects a number of shifts; the shifts in Europe and Asia at the end of the Cold War as well as some of the changes that have been taking place in India over the course of the decade,'' the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Mr. Robert Zoellick, said.

Mr. Zoellick, who has a Cabinet rank in the Bush administration, was speaking to journalists at the end of a luncheon meeting with the Commerce Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran.

He will be the first Cabinet official of the Bush administration to visit India in the first week of August for talks with Government leaders and the private sector.

The USTR, who said his visit to India was more to ``listen and observe'', discussed with Mr. Maran on Friday a number of subjects that included not only India's thinking on the new round of trade talks but also issues of bilateral importance as it pertained to trade and investments.

Stressing that his session with Mr. Maran was a luncheon meeting and had nothing to do with negotiations, Mr. Zoellick said the talks were wide-ranging, especially on India's political economy. Mr. Maran is said to have explained to Mr. Zoellick where India stood on the issue of multilateral trade talks.

``I stressed my interest in learning more about developments in India so I could better appreciate the Indian perspective and interests. I stated my belief that India's economic reforms and growth would make it an increasingly important economy in the global system'', the USTR later said in a release.

Asked if he would take up the Enron issue in India, Mr. Zoellick said that as he was on that corporation's advisory council, he would not participate in any discussion.

He said there were striking aspects to the economic reforms and liberalisation process that began in India a decade ago: the process was put in motion by the Congress but the reforms had continued. And during this period it has also been clear that India would chart its own course.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Next     : Pak. invitation to be handed over next week