The Hindu : Rocca to focus on regional security

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003

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Rocca to focus on regional security

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI Sept. 9. The shaky peace processes in Sri Lanka and Nepal and threats to the stability of Afghanistan are among the many regional issues that will come up for discussion between the visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, and senior Indian officials tomorrow.

The latest developments in Iraq and the likely Indian contribution to the stabilisation of that country as well as the state of bilateral relations will inevitably figure in the talks.

But the principal objective of Ms. Rocca, who arrives here late tonight, is to sustain Indo-U.S. contact on regional security issues which has emerged as a new element in the relations between the countries.

During the Cold War, India was deeply suspicious of any American political involvement in its neighbourhood. For decades, an unstated but conscious policy of India has been to minimise if not exclude the influence of other major powers in its immediate neighbourhood.

India never really succeeded in keeping the other powers out of the subcontinent. While size and geography define the natural Indian primacy in the region, New Delhi has begun seeing the virtues of greater international cooperation in managing the security challenges in its neighbourhood.

As Indo-U.S. relations have warmed in recent years, New Delhi has become more open to regular exchange of views with Washington on the political affairs of the subcontinent and beyond. Under the Bush Administration a dialogue on regional affairs has been institutionalised.

Convergence of views

In Sri Lanka, there has been a substantive convergence of views between the two sides on preserving the territorial unity of Sri Lanka and ensuring the rights of minorities. New Delhi and Washington are both opposed to terrorism and have banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). With India taking a deliberately low-key stance in the current peace process in Sri Lanka, it has found American pressure on the LTTE to give up violence quite useful.

Both India and the U.S. are committed to putting an end to the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. While questions have often been raised here about the expanding American role in Nepal, there has been continuous contact and coordination between Indian and American diplomatic missions in Kathmandu in approaching the national crisis there.

New Delhi and Washington have extended strong support to the Government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. They, however, have real differences on the role of Pakistan and its armed forces in fomenting trouble in Afghanistan. While the U.S. continues to see cooperation with Pakistan as critical in Afghanistan, India believes Islamabad to be part of the problem.

In Myanmar, India has maintained its engagement with the military regime even as the U.S. has imposed fresh sanctions on Yangon. Indo-U.S. regional dialogue, sources on both sides say, has been a valuable mechanism in appreciating each other's concerns and finding common ground wherever possible.

Greater transparency about each other's objectives in the region surrounding India has served as an important confidence-building measure between New Delhi and Washington, the sources add. Neither side, however, has an early and complete convergence on all issues.

Talks on regional security issues have also allowed the development of substantive and continuous contact between parts of the two establishments which deal with issues other than bilateral relations.

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