Bangalore: The two-day national workshop on the "Changing contours of Indo-U.S. relations", which began here on Thursday, will discuss issues affecting India and the U.S. and chart out strategic options for the future, K. Kasturirangan, Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), has said.

The workshop has been organised by NIAS's International Strategic and Security Studies Programme in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Speaking at the inauguration of the workshop, he welcomed Governor T.N. Chaturvedi and thanked ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair for helping NIAS to organise it.

Inaugurating the workshop, Mr. Chaturvedi said it is the right time to take stock of Indo-U.S. relations and chart their course in context of the coming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush. Relations have seen ups and downs though the U.S. is India's largest trading partner. "As India tried to make the transition to a developed country in the midst of regional and geo-political challenges, relations between the two countries became mired in problems, which at times appeared to be overwhelmingly difficult to solve," he said.

Change in global forces

Mr. Chaturvedi said the Cold War era and the division of the world into ideological regimes created varying world views and different perceptions of "national interest". Yoga, music, films, literature and other aspects of culture have helped promote India's relations with the U.S., he said. "The change in global forces not only provides new opportunities but also raises threats. The U.S. has started looking at India differently and there is potential for a paradigm shift in relations," he added.

The Governor said the national interests of the two countries may have many converging strands, and the challenge is to identify bottlenecks and deal with them.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail