Posted on 04/07/2010 10:56:20 AM PDT by AlanD
Barack Obama is in danger of reversing all the progress his predecessors, including George W. Bush, made in forging closer U.S. ties with India. Preoccupied with China and the Middle East, the Obama administration has allotted little room on its schedule for India, and failed to get much done in the short time it did make. Hosting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the November state visit, the administration managed to produce cordial photo ops, but the agreements reached on education, energy cooperation, and the like dealt with trivia. Indian diplomats close to Singh say the lackluster results show how far the relationship has fallen since Bill Clinton and the two Bushes transformed a strained Cold War rivalry into a close strategic partnership between the world's largest democracies. No single American move has done more to demonstrate Washington's respect for New Delhi as a rising and equal power. Now Obama, who came to office promising to respect U.S. allies, is backpedaling on that deal, to the growing chagrin of the Indians.
Obama appears largely oblivious to India's concerns. When the U.S. gathered its allies in the Afghan war at a London summit in January, Indian officials felt they were marginalized because their views were not sought or paid heed to in any fashion. They were even more annoyed by U.S. declarations of a "new dawn" in relations with India's old adversary, Pakistan, and the apparent trust American officials now place in Pakistan's willingness to fight the Taliban, both at home and in Afghanistan. Their feeling is that top Obama advisers, like national-security adviser James Jones and the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, have little experience in South Asia and have displayed remarkable naiveté in public statements.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
We’ll try to undo this entire mess as soon as we’re legally able to, India. Don’t worry. We have a bogus POTUS right now but We The People are still your ally.
Yeah. Photo ops with party crashers!
.
We all hate Obama (One Big Ass Mistake America)....
Obama is the anti Christ.
The whole world will be fighting by the time he is done.
US giving hi-tech weapons to Pakistan worries India
NEW DELHI: The prospect of a nuclear deal for Pakistan gives India less sleepless nights than the fact that the US, in an attempt to “incentivise” Pakistan, is piling on sophisticated military equipment that have little to do with counter-terrorism but more to do with targeting India.
With the first lot of 18 F-16C/D Block 50/52 combat aircraft due to be delivered in the next few months, India is raising the diplomatic pitch against the transfer of such equipment to Pakistan.
While defence minister A K Antony has articulated these concerns, this has been the subject of a lot of diplomatic traffic between New Delhi and Washington lately. Officials expect this will sharpen in the run-up to the India-US strategic dialogue scheduled for June in Washington.
Apart from the F-16s worth $1.43 billion, the US is also financing $477 million (of $891 million) for almost 60 mid-life update kits for its older fleet of F-16s A/B combat aircraft and financing part of 115 M-109 self-propelled howitzers. Under the “excess defence articles” EDA, the US will be giving one ex-Oliver Hazard Perry class missile frigate (worth $67 million) as well as 20 AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters (worth $48 million of which 12 have already been delivered) and 121 refurbished TOW missile launchers. The US has already given 5,250 TOW anti-armour missiles to Pakistan.
After the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said these military supplies would be expedited. “We’ve agreed to fast-track our requests that have been pending for months and years, on the transfer of military equipment to Pakistan,” Qureshi said.
Since 2001, Pakistan has received 14 F-16s (as part of an earlier deal) and 39 T-37 military trainer jets. Under the compensation scheme for the terror war, under which the US pays Pakistan to fight its own terrorists, the US has transferred $7.2 billion to Pakistan since 2002. According to official US figures, this is set to spike by $3.4 billion for the coming year. This is apart from the fact that the US administration has asked its Congress for more money to Pakistan this year.
While sources here said India had no quarrel with the US compensating Pakistan for its counter-terrorism efforts, a lot of the equipment from US is being diverted to build up Pakistan army’s capability against India.
U.S. and Pakistan Agree to Reinforce Strategic Ties
By MARK LANDLER
Published: March 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/world/asia/26policy.html
EXCERPT:
WASHINGTON — Pakistan and the United States wrapped up two days of high-level talks on Thursday, with a raft of economic development initiatives, an agreement to hasten deliveries of military hardware and a promise to put their often mistrustful relationship on a new footing.
In a communiqué issued after the talks, the countries said they would “redouble their efforts to deal effectively with terrorism” and would work together for “peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
Administration officials said Pakistan was likely to get swifter delivery of F-16 fighter jets, naval frigates and helicopter gunships, as well as new remotely piloted aircraft for surveillance missions. But the United States was silent about Pakistan’s most heavily advertised proposal: a civil nuclear agreement similar to the one the Bush administration signed with Pakistan’s archrival, India.
Given Pakistan’s history of selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, such an agreement would realistically be 10 or 15 years away, a senior administration official said Thursday. Still, the administration was careful not to dismiss the idea out of hand.
“This is a new day,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in greeting Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi. “For the past year, the Obama administration has shown in our words and our deeds a different approach and a different attitude toward Pakistan.”
U.S. pledges millions in aid to Pakistan
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/25/u-s-pledges-millions-in-aid-to-pakistan/
Pakistan, US seek ‘wide-ranging, long-term’ strategic partnership
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\03\26\story_26-3-2010_pg1_10
WASHINGTON: The US on Thursday pledged to work to improve market access for Pakistani goods, as the two nations sought to turn the page on years of distrust.
Pakistan and the US said they would seek a “wide-ranging, long-term and substantive strategic partnership” after two days of talks led by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
In the joint statement, the US said it was “committed to work towards enhanced market access for Pakistani products as well as towards the early finalisation of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ) legislation”.
The proposal would give duty-free access to products from designated parts of the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan in a bid to create new industries in the long time Taliban stronghold as they rebuild from fighting.
Two Democratic lawmakers, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington and Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, proposed the ROZs last year, but the bill has languished in Congress.
The US has launched a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan as part of a major initiative by Washington to chip away at anti-Americanism and support for extremists in the nuclear power. But some Pakistanis say that the US has done too little to create a demand for its products, with key exports such as textiles facing prohibitive tariffs.
The joint statement said that the two nations would also discuss drafting an investment treaty to encourage US funds in Pakistan.
Investment treaty: Meanwhile, APP reported that the two governments also decided to discuss issues related to the bilateral investment treaty in order to stimulate investment in Pakistan.
Group: A Policy Steering Group was also established to intensify and expand the sectoral dialogue process in the fields of economy, trade, energy, defence, security, strategic stability and non-proliferation, law enforcement and counter-terrorism; science and technology; education; agriculture; water; health; and communications and public diplomacy.
These sectoral meetings will be held in Islamabad soon.
Both sides exchanged views on the status of bilateral cooperation and decided to continually provide strategic guidance for strengthening US-Pakistan partnership in the 21st Century for realising the aspirations of their people.
They reiterated that the core foundations of this partnership are shared democratic values, mutual trust and mutual respect.
As of today, the U.S. has no allies. Obama has insulted every one of them. And even Iran says it prefers Bush.
So there you have it folks. The Obama foreign policy dividend, is now realized.
Sarkozy is the only guy lapping up what Obama is serving, and that’s strange since he acted the part of a Conservative during the first part of his administration.
Obama hates India for the same reason he hates Israel. Because it’s an ally.
But also, because he’s a Communist Muslim, and it’s a Muslim ambition to conquer and destroy both Israel and India.
Sarkozy hates Obama, and has said as much in the past. But he’s between a rock and a hard place, since the French are blaming him for their economic troubles.
Good to know, but he sure wasn’t showing any of that last week. It was almost embarrassing.
Sarkozy is French and, therefore, a pragmatist. Once you understand that, everything else becomes fathomable. If Mickey Mouse became the president, Sarkozy would become a Mousekateer.
“Join the club, India. Everyone dislikes Obama.”
Yes, at this point the Indians will have to get in a rather long line.
That’s a reasonable point.
Being President of the United States is just a stepping stone for Barack Obama. The job that he REALLY wants is Secretary-General of the United States.
I predict that is what he will be after he loses the 2012 election.
Secretary-General of the United Nations, I meant.
(I wish that Free Republic had an edit feature . .)
I’ll have the ear of a senior MP in India (soon to be a Minister) within the next month or so, and will convey these sentiments to the best of my ability without violating the Logan act.
Did you mean Secretary General of the United Nations? If so, I can certainly see him wanting that. Hm..m..m, I wonder what we can keep him busy doing to avoid that. We’ll have to put our thinking caps on. ;-)
The list of ‘former allies’ gets longer and longer. Only the MSM, which the public is universally ignoring, think the ‘bama could touch his butt with both hands when it comes to foreign policy.
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