Towards new Indo-U.S. links

THE `STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE' that India seems to be gaining in the foreign policy calculus of the present Bush administration in Washington is gradually becoming conspicuous. Yet even as the U.S. begins to see India as an emerging ``world player'', the American Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Ms. Christina Rocca, has categorically clarified that there is no question of New Delhi being treated as a factor of relevance to Washington's often-uneasy equation with Beijing. The essentially bilateral complexion of the improving U.S.-India ties has been underlined by her ahead of her visit to South Asia at this time. In a sense, this should help put in perspective any signs of a dramatic upturn in Indo-U.S. defence cooperation. While there is hardly any doubt that the U.S. now tends to look at India in a larger international context of possibilities for ``natural'' cooperation between the ``oldest democracy and the biggest democracy'', equally significant is Ms. Rocca's studied note of caution against any notion of an unstated bond between the two. Viewed in this perspective, the discussions that took place during the latest visit to India by the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, mark the beginning of a constructive new bilateral relationship. It has been agreed to define by the end of this year a suitable structure for new and intensified U.S.-India military cooperation. This attracts unusual attention, if only because the bilateral defence ties are being revived now against the context of a lull that set in after India tested nuclear weapons in May 1998.

Beyond the indicated areas of a truly normative military interaction lies a new process of consultations on the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush's current plans for an international security framework. In a rarefied strategic ambience, Gen. Shelton and his Indian interlocutors have now discussed the issue of ballistic missile defences too. The Vajpayee administration is reported to be keen on looking at the prospects of being able to participate in a possible U.S.- inspired arrangement that might enable New Delhi to obtain early warnings about missile launches in its own external neighbourhood. Such ideas, even if not surreal in scope, seem entirely a matter for the future as of now. However, Gen. Shelton's professional exchanges with Indian officials on the overall missile defence issue appear to be in tune with a notable assertion by Dr. Condoleeza Rice, President Bush's National Security Adviser. She said in a recent interview to this newspaper that ``India counts''.

A grand design of an enhanced framework of U.S.-India relationship can of course be considered only after the existing sanctions are lifted by Washington. At this stage, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State has not substantively gone beyond reaffirming a known expectation that these sanctions would be removed as soon as possible. While taking note of India's emerging economic profile as an object of Washington's new thinking about South Asia, Ms. Rocca seems to keep in contemporary focus the original non-proliferation context in which certain sanctions were imposed in 1998. Moreover, evincing an abiding interest over the current re-engagement between India and Pakistan, the U.S. has made clear that it is up to these South Asian neighbours to proceed further in their bilateral dialogue and resolve the Kashmir issue by ``taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people''. Ms. Rocca underscored that this line is compatible with the policy advocated by the previous Clinton administration that Pakistan as also India should respect the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. If these nuances do not reflect any pro-India stance, the U.S. is emphatic in its insistence that it has already ceased to look at the South Asian subcontinent in the Cold War paradigm of zero-sum games.

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