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India & World
By P.S. Suryanarayana
SINGAPORE, JUNE 5. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, today cited his country's "reinvigorated'' ties with India as one of the key developments that helped shape the course of the ongoing "global war on terror." Mr. Rumsfeld was speaking on "the U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific'' region at the first plenary session of the third "Asia Security Conference," or "Shangri-La Dialogue," being held in Singapore under the auspices of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. He listed India among the countries that were now "helping with the reconstruction [in Afghanistan and Iraq] and in many other ways." He did not, however, spell out the actual roles which, in his perception, India and the others were indeed playing. Nor did he outline any specifics of the linkage between the toned-up U.S.-India ties and the "global war on terror." Mr. Rumsfeld said: "Since the global war on terror began, we have witnessed the forging of new partnerships and closer cooperation with longtime friends. For example, we have reinvigorated long-standing relationships with countries such as India and Pakistan." Placing this at the top of the list of "examples," he outlined the others as follows: the new relationships with countries such as Yemen and Uzbekistan; the "upgrading'' of "security programmes'' in the Philippines; the "improved intelligence-sharing with long-standing allies and friends in Europe, Australia and East Asia'' and the development of "a better relationship with China." Without identifying India as a victim of international terrorism, even as he enumerated some acts of such violence, Mr. Rumsfeld expressed concern over the continuing proliferation of terrorists in India's neighbourhood. In the post-speech question-answer session, he said: "President Musharraf [of Pakistan], in my view, has stepped forward. .... and he is actively trying to be helpful in the global war on terrorism. And yet, simultaneously, in that part of the world, we see more terrorists being trained. It is something that's going to take [international] cooperation [to tackle], and I don't frankly see a coalition that is organised to do it, whether they are reluctant [coalition partners] or willing [ones], either way." Giving a contrasting "example of what can be accomplished when nations concerned work closely together," Mr. Rumsfeld said a "criminal enterprise'' of nuclear-weapons proliferation, associated with l'affaire A.Q. Khan of Pakistan, "is [now] out of business." In the question and answer session, however, Mr. Rumsfeld said the full ramifications of the "rogue network'' might not have been deciphered yet. He said: "Well, you know, you never know which you don't know! [However] I have confidence that President Musharraf has stopped him [A.Q. Khan] and that the network has been dismantled. .... The world is a better place [now]." Significantly, neither the Kashmir issue nor the India-Pakistan equation figured in the plenary session which centred mainly on the general issues of terrorism in the context of the Islamic world, besides the questions of Iraq and North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
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