The Hindu : Front Page : `India, U.S. have closer ties now'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

`India, U.S. have closer ties now'

By Harish Khare

The U.S. President, George W. Bush, with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh in New York on Tuesday. — AP

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 21. India said today that it had re-designed its relationship with the United States as an "evolving partnership, based on mutual confidence and concern."

After the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh's hour-long breakfast meeting with the United States President, George W. Bush, Indian officials claimed that the relationship with Washington has been re-configured as a partnership between two equal and serious international players.

The breakfast meeting ended on a note of satisfaction. Dr. Singh was accompanied by the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, the National Security Adviser, J.N.Dixit, the Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Ronen Sen, and the Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran.

Mr. Bush was assisted by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, the National Security Adviser, Condeleezza Rice, and the former American Ambassador in New Delhi and now a senior White House aide, Robert Blackwill.

The breakfast meeting took place a couple of hours before Mr. Bush travelled a few blocks away to address the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Close ties

After the meeting, the two sides issued a statement — "United States-India Partnership: Cooperation and Trust." It said the bilateral relationship "had never been as close as now" and hailed the recent implementation of Phase One of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) "as the beginning of a new era of cooperation and trust."

(A few days ago, the U.S. had removed Indian Space Research Organisation from the Commerce Department's list of proscribed organisations. However, licensing will still be subject to a case-by-case review of India's request for high technology).

Mr. Saran was keen on making the point that implementation of the NSSP ought not to be seen as a "reward" for some kind of good behaviour on New Delhi's part, but rather as an expression of a relationship based on a commonality of interests and concerns between two democracies in the areas of nuclear non-proliferation, as also an extension of the growing defence cooperation.

`Pakistan not the focus'

There was a discussion of the situation in South Asia, but the Indian side was again keen on stressing that "Pakistan was not the focus" of the Manmohan Singh-Bush meeting.

The Indian side apprised the American hosts of the progress on the dialogue with Pakistan.

Dr. Singh told Mr. Bush — just as he had conveyed to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair — that if public opinion was to be built in favour of the India-Pakistan talks, it was very important that the "assurances" that the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, had made be kept. Dr. Singh is reported to have listed the elimination of the terrorist training camps and launching pads as necessary conditions.

`Combat terrorism'

Mr. Bush and his advisers are believed to have asserted that terrorism of "any kind, anywhere" must be combated and they expressed "understanding and appreciation" of the Indian views in the matter of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

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