Posted on 11/23/2009 10:24:37 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, on Monday offered a strong endorsement of Barack Obama’s foreign policy agenda, calling for robust international support for military operations in Afghanistan as well as backing the US president’s calls for a nuclear-free world.
Mr Singh, 77, who will hold talks with the US president in the White House on Tuesday morning and was the guest of honour on Monday night at the first state dinner since Mr Obama took office, also dropped clear hints that India would qualify as a more natural “strategic partner” for the US than China.
Mr Obama, who visited China last week, sought but failed to secure material pledges of support from Beijing for a forthcoming increase in US troops, trainers and civilian aid workers in Afghanistan. Mr Singh offered a strong rhetorical endorsement of the US goals in Afghanistan.
“It is vitally important that all major regional and international players put their weight behind the government of Afghanistan,” Mr Singh told the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is the only way Afghanistan can meet the daunting challenges it faces.”
The Indian prime minister‘s words were also directed at Pakistan, which has long been at loggerheads with Hamid Karzai’s government. Mr Singh made it plain that India’s democratic values made it a more suitable global partner for the US than others.
Mr Singh, who talked of India’s role in helping the US make the “transition to a new [multipolar] order”, also drew attention to China’s recent sabre-rattling over the disputed Himalayan border between India and China.
“What happened between President Obama and President Hu [Jintao of China] is not our direct concern,” he said.
“It is in all our interests to see the peaceful rise of a strong China . . . But [on the border dispute] there has recently been a certain amount of assertiveness by the Chinese leadership. I do not understand the reasons for it.”
Mr Singh also had critical words for China’s model of development.
Conceding that China’s economic growth had exceeded that of India, Mr Singh, an economist, said India had made other advances that were not captured by conventional economic measures.
“I would not choose the China model of development. I would prefer to stick to the path India has chosen,” he said.
Have him send some troops to protect the new electrical power lines India just built from Tajikistan to Kabul.
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