The Hindu : International / India & World : Ties with India will progress steadily, says Talbott

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Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

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International - India & World

Ties with India will progress steadily, says Talbott

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 8. Relations between the United States and India will progress steadily under a Kerry administration in spite of the Democratic nominee's outbursts on such issues as outsourcing of jobs, says the former Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, who is currently heading the Brookings Institution.

In a conversation with a group of Indian journalists, Mr. Talbott said there was "huge bipartisan support" for a positive American approach to India. He disputed the notion that only under Republican administrations did bilateral relations take on a substantive direction.

Indian-American role

"Indo-U.S. relations have a lot of ballast to it and it is not subject to being tossed and turned around; and one reason is the growing influence in recent years of the Indian American community," Mr. Talbott said.

In the general realm of foreign and national security policies, there are great differences between the incumbent Republican President and his Democratic challenger but "this is not the case with India," the former Clinton administration official said. On the issue of outsourcing, Mr. Talbott argued that Senator Kerry "has left himself with room between policy and the campaign."

Asked what his advice to Mr. Kerry on India would be, Mr. Talbott said it was very important for the South Asian region to be "elevated" in American security calculations. And with respect to India there were at least two things that needed to be done: develop the relationship in all its dimensions and promise and not totally abandon the non-proliferation treaty.

The non-proliferation regime, according to Mr. Talbott, had to be pursued with India in a fashion that did not poison the relationship but at the same time not something to be swept under the rug.

At the Brookings, Mr. Talbott disagreed with the perception that "Pakistan can do no wrong" is the policy of the United States and went on to say that the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and his team at the State Department and the South Asia Bureau there deserved "high marks" for the fashion in which they have gone about with Islamabad including being "very tough" and "very explicit" with Pakistan on the subject of terrorist groups' infiltration into India.

A.Q. Khan network

On the A.Q. Khan network, he stressed that this administration "did something which the Clinton administration would have liked to have done. The Bush administration deserves credit for this."

Keeping in mind the larger picture which was the importance of Pakistan in the context of Afghanistan and terrorism, it is necessary for this Republican administration to "cut Musharraf some slack," he said.

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