We welcome India's thinking differently: U.S.

'RELATIONS WITH INDIA, CHINA NO ZERO-SUM GAME'

By Malini Parthasarathy

WASHINGTON, JUNE 19. The U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, and his advisers are clearly pleased with the Indian Government's apparent willingness to listen with an open mind to his proposals on a new strategic framework for international security, a response that contrasts with the scepticism and uncertainty that marks a good part of the European reaction. ``My impression is that India is one of the countries in the world prepared to think differently about the strategic environment and the role of defences in nuclear deterrence... it's a very welcome development,'' President Bush's National Security Adviser, Dr. Condoleeza Rice, said here on Monday.

During a conversation in her office at the White House, Dr. Rice noted that while India ``has not said that it supports missile defence'', it had certainly shown that it was ``prepared to think differently''. She also made clear that it was not that the United States was seeking support on this issue. ``We are not asking that people do that... it's not that we have asked for support, nor has anyone agreed to anything specifically.'' Asked whether India's opinion really mattered, given that it was more crucial for the United States to be able to persuade Europe which was far more relevant to the actual implementation of the new American strategy, Dr. Rice said emphatically: ``The President doesn't see it that way... India counts.''

Explaining why that was the case, the U.S. National Security Adviser said that the President saw the context of his new strategic framework for international security more in terms of ensuring that ``peace-loving countries ought to have the capabilities against ballistic missiles'' from ``rogue'' nations. India, along with Spain, Poland and Britain had shown a willingness ``to think differently'' about the international strategic framework. That was indeed welcome, she said.

Before her current incarnation as National Security Adviser in this administration, Dr. Rice had argued in an influential article in the January 2000 issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, detailing the foreign policy priorities of a prospective Bush administration that, among other things, the United States ought to pay closer attention to India's role in the Asian regional balance. She had noted then that ``India is not a great power yet but it has the potential to emerge as one.'' Observing too that India ``is an element in China's calculation'', she had said in that article that India ``should be in America's too''. Asked during her conversation with this newspaper on Monday whether she regarded those premises as still holding good today, Dr. Rice said that they certainly did. The Bush administration sees India as ``the largest democracy, an emerging economy'' and believes that it ``can certainly become a powerful nation'', she said.

Significantly, Dr. Rice's observations underlined the fact that while the Bush administration certainly had an upbeat appraisal of the role that India could play in Asia, in no way was the administration meaning to pit India against China. Dr. Rice said categorically, ``We want to see good relations among all the major powers in Asia, the United States wants to have good relations with China, India and China should have good relations.'' Making very clear that the Bush administration does not intend its interest in developing stronger relations with India to be construed as a move to counter China's influence in the region, Dr. Rice emphasised that ``this is not a zero-sum game.'' Nor was it ``the old-fashioned balance of power'' concept that was playing out, she added.

Dr. Rice also referred positively to the proposed summit meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan and its implication for the dispute over Kashmir. ``We have been impressed with how far the Indian and Pakistani Governments are going... it's been done without the United States... sometimes the United States can be in the background!'' she said. But, interestingly, she also said ``if there comes a time that India and Pakistan think the United States can play a role, we will be prepared to help.''

She went on to point out that ``philosophically, President Bush believes that the parties themselves must want solutions and the United States cannot impose solutions''. This was what the President had felt about Macedonia and the Middle East, for example. It was no different with India. ``We will play whatever role the parties think useful,'' Dr. Rice said.

However enthusiastic the Bush administration's perception be of the potential in engaging an India which has shown itself to be relatively more congenial to the new Bush strategic framework, it does not seem that this will have any impact on the traditional American pattern of consulting its other Asian allies and also Russia on the key issues of Asian security. Senior administration officials here also pointed to the fact that when Mr. Bush met the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, a few days ago, the Russian leader had made clear ``that he wants to work together with the United States'' on key issues relating to security in Asia, including issues of nuclear proliferation in South Asia. Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin then agreed at their meeting that the United States and Russia would work together on these issues.

These officials were also at pains to dispel notions that if the U.S. went ahead and implemented its plans for missile defence, it would cause Russia and China to accelerate the development of more missiles. The NMD was not aimed at China or Russia. The officials refuted the idea that the President's proposals had been negatively received in Europe. The mood in the NATO meeting was ``receptive and positive'', they said. President Bush and his team found the Russian President very ``open-minded'', the senior administration sources said, ``we didn't expect him to change his mind overnight.'' Overall, the Bush administration believes that it is ``making progress'' in regard to the acceptance of its new strategic framework.

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