Posted on 07/17/2005 12:22:29 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh starts a landmark trip to the United States on Monday (July 18) aiming to cement a new relationship with the sole superpower and erase decades of Cold War-era suspicions.
On at least one occasion, the sourness between the two descended into name-calling.
Now, several agreements are on the agenda for the three-day trip, from cooperation in nuclear science to fighting AIDS, as well as the launch of an Indo-US forum of chief executives to accelerate business ties.
The US may also lift restrictions that remain on high-technology transfers that were imposed after India's nuclear tests in 1998.
During her visit to New Delhi earlier this year, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered India "a decisively broader strategic partnership."
She also conveyed President George W. Bush's message that US policy was to help India to become a major world power in the 21st century.
That's a sea-change from the time the US government officially "tilted" towards Pakistan during the 1971 India-Pakistan war when New Delhi was perceived to be in Moscow's camp.
Recently declassified US documents have revealed that then-president Richard Nixon often referred to then-Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi as "that old witch" and worse.
From Monday, however, Singh will be on "a state visit with full honours" and accorded a ceremonial honour guard on the White House lawns.
Bush will host a dinner for Singh while Dr Rice will host a lunch for him. His itinerary includes an address to a joint session of the US Congress.
"The visit will reaffirm at the highest level the transformation in India-US relations," said Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.
"This is going to be a partnership which brings benefits not just to India, but also the United States. A number of initiatives will converge during this visit."
He suggested that most of the remaining restrictions on high-technology transfers might be lifted.
"If the United States wants to look at India as a partner, obviously it cannot also treat India as a target for restrictions," he said.
"If the relationship has to change fundamentally, this (the restrictions) also has to go. The United States is aware of this."
Singh is visiting the White House at a time when his nation is receiving unprecedented attention from world leaders as a result of its expanding economy and also because of growing unease in some capitals at the strategic implications of China's rise.
India now has "strategic-level" dialogues with China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the European Union.
"People are looking at India ... because it is strong. That is why this desire for engagement," Saran said.
While his foreign policy options are widening by the day, Singh's visit is taking place against a domestic background of increasing tension over policy with communist backers of his minority government.
India's leading communist parties have warned him against moving too closely into Washington's embrace.
There is a natural relationship between India and the US that is growing. This may or may not translate into agreements on paper.
But the real relationships are always more important than the paper ones. Without an underlying real one, the paper one is worthless, as our former NATO allies have taught us. Its best to just let the relationship grow and not worry so much about the diplomatic niceties.
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