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COPYRIGHT 2006 Professors World Peace Academy
India has become an important country for US foreign policy, as evidenced by recent time and energy spent by the US President and Secretary of State. India's size, its increased economic interdependence with the United States, its political stability, its democratic form of government, and its geographical placement all make it a priority for foreign policy.
India is being treated as an equal and independent state, unlike many of the smaller states with less global influence. The United States sells military hardware on different terms than to most other states, like neighboring Pakistan, and President Bush has bent his position on India's adherence to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. The US allows India to purchase military hardware from other countries without imposing conditions, like it would on client states.
The new India which has embraced globalization is a far cry from the India of Nehru.
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When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited India in March last year, she said: "This is my first step as Secretary of State in Asia. The President has personally put a lot of time and energy into the relationship. The US has determined that this is going to be a very important relationship going forward and we are going to put whatever time we need into it." The aim was to take US-India ties "to another level". According to her, the Bush Administration was sworn to assisting "India become a major world power in the twenty-first century."
Rarely in the past hundred years has a US president sent a signal of this dimension. It means that the US will help India realize the global aspiration that its size, geography and its post-1991 economic reform agenda have made into a national obsession. The core judgement is that a strong, democratic and influential India is an asset for the US in the region and the world.
At the annual Asia Security Summit, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore on June 3, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "Our relationship with India has grown from an uneasy coexistence during the Cold War to a true partnership, based on our common values and common interests today." (1) He continues, "Over the past five or six years, the relationship between the US and India, from a military-to-military standpoint, has steadily improved. And, it is multifaceted at this stage. It involves exercise. It involves working together on problems of common interest. And we certainly expect to see that our areas of common interest will continue to bring us together, from a military-to-military standpoint, in the months and years to come." (2)
Over the past few years, India and the United States have been getting on better than ever. Joint exercises have been conducted between the United States and Indian forces near Agra, and the United States has also indicated it will supply modern military equipment to India. The US Ambassador to India, David C. Mulford, said in early April, 2005 that the Bush Administration wants to advance Indo-US strategic cooperation and has indicated that, as part of the "Indo-US Strategic Partnership" deal, New Delhi would be made a party to "expanded dialogue on missile defense." India, for its part, has decided to participate in joint naval exercises with the NATO forces in Alaska. India has something to hope for; it is aiming to be a major economic force and a key global power.
The global stature of India today as an emerging power is a result of its recent economic growth, its nuclear tests and capability, and its search for a greater role in the international system. The Lowy Institute August 2005 survey, comparing India and China, says a "democratic India that grows at 6 percent a year should be congratulated for having succeeded better than a brutal anti-democratic China which grows at 10 percent a year." (3)
Many Indians believe that India's regional pre-eminence--in size, centrality, defense capability, substantial economic potential, and political stability--is a positive factor that would help consolidate future India-US relations. (4)
The United States wishes to gain free access to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf,...
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