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Bush hails defence links with India

P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: Pledging to weave a web of "partnerships" for "security cooperation in Asia," United States President George W. Bush has hailed his administration's new defence links with India.

Delivering a foreign policy speech in Singapore on Thursday, Mr. Bush said: "With India, we signed an historic agreement to expand defence cooperation, increase joint [military] exercises, and improve intelligence sharing."

He cited this accord as an aspect of his strategy for "strengthening defence cooperation in the Asia Pacific region." The strategy was taking shape even "as we work for a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons."

Mr. Bush identified China as a power that the U.S. was working with to address the current North Korean nuclear crisis. India was not mentioned, though, among countries he would engage to resolve the North Korean issue. At the same time, he did not cite China while outlining the security-related "defence cooperation" that his administration was now seeking across Asia.

Maintaining that the U.S. "places the highest value on [the] partnerships" in the defence domain, he listed Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Singapore as the players of relevance to Washington's current policy of engagement.

On the specifics of Washington's security-oriented military ties in Asia, the deployment of a missile defence system was the dominant theme in regard to Japan, while "deterrence" figured as the centrepiece of Washington's ties with South Korea. Missile defence research, intelligence, and joint military training were projected as key areas of the U.S.-Australia cooperation.

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