PM rules out military alliance with U.S.

By P. S. Suryanarayana

LONDON, NOV. 13. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has categorically ruled out the possibility of India striking a ``military alliance'' with the U.S. in a calibrated fashion or even as a quick deal at the moment. The speculation gained currency in the context of some perceived absurdities in the evolving `campaign' against international terrorism.

Mr. Vajpayee today completed his three-nation trip of anti-terror diplomacy on a note of some promise and much hope. He certainly won high-profile friends during his tour that commenced on November 4, but it remains debatable whether he has also been able to influence the thinking of his hard-headed interlocutors - the leaders of Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. - in line with the definitive adage of Dale Carnegie.

Addressing the Indian journalists accompanying him, Mr. Vajpayee said in London on Monday night that he did engage the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, and his administration in some intensive discussions on a wide-range of issues, including defence-related cooperation. However, there was no question of a military alliance with Washington, he asserted. The answers he gave in Hindi to questions on this subject reflected some diplomatic nuances as well.

India would now seek to intensify its strategic partnership with Russia agreed upon only last year. The latest understanding with Russia on some unspecified security matters would synchronise with such strategic partnership.

With the U.S., though, India would seek to enhance defence- related cooperation in a manner that might be in harmony with the proposed bilateral dialogue on a new ``strategic framework'' as first enunciated by Mr. Bush.

On a separate plane, Mr. Vajpayee expressed satisfaction that the U.S. did not mention either Pakistan or Kashmir by name.

The British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, also raised the issue of possible military sales to India, according to a top official in the Prime Minister's entourage. On the whole, however, it appeared that no strategic triangle, involving India, the U.S. and Russia, in one scenario, or the U.S. the U.K. and India, in a different case, was now on the cards in the fight against terrorism.

Yet, India is said to have initiated an anti-terror dialogue with France and China, the other two powerful nations with the wherewithal to combat the menace.

While India is officially portrayed as a rising power in the anti-terror coalition, some aspects of this claim remain unexplained and therefore somewhat inexplicable. In particular, India is said to have hit the upward trajectory towards a ``partnership'' with the U.S.

Yet, it is strange that the regional ramifications of this menace could have been discussed without any reference to Pakistan and Kashmir.

More significantly, a ranking American official told this correspondent in an informal conversation that India's offer of ``everything'' for the battle against terror might be seen as really ``nothing'' as long as some specifics of Indo-U.S. cooperation are not worked out.

The new refrain in India's official echelons is that it is no longer concerned with the apprehensions of the Pakistan factor in dealing with the U.S. The reasoning is that there is credible evidence that the U.S. itself is moving away from its old tendency to play zero-sum games with regard to India and Pakistan.

The Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been playing his diplomatic cards deftly seeking to place his country firmly within the international anti-terror coalition.

The derisive view of him as a Man Friday to Uncle Sam leaves India still with the question of a compatible co-existence with Pakistan within the emerging multilateral coalition against terror. For New Delhi, these challenges are not altered by its apparent new decision, or at least desire, to rise above the Pakistan fixation.

It is perhaps in line with this new thinking that India has not formally reacted to Gen. Musharraf's latest strategic offer of nuclear test ban treaty with India and the related issues.

As for Gen. Musharraf's caustic comments on India during his latest address to the U.N. General Assembly, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Ms. Nirupama Rao, made the following rejoinder on being asked specifically about the Pakistani leader's angry remarks.

Noting that there was ``nothing new'' in Gen. Musharraf's speech, the spokesperson said India would ``not match intemperance with intemperance''. It was, therefore, unfortunate that Gen. Musharraf should have made some ``offensive statements laced with compulsive hostility''.

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Section  : International
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