Obama adm should demonstrate its vision for Indo-US relations

Lalit K Jha

Washington, July 17 (PTI) With US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton on her maiden visit to India, an American
foreign policy expert feels the top US diplomat should
demonstrate that Obama Administration has a strategic vision
for Indo-US relations.

Senior Research Fellow on South Asia in the Asian Studies
Center at The Heritage Foundation, Lisa Curtis said the new
Administration's strategic vision must acknowledge New Delhi's
growing global economic, political, and geo-strategic clout.

Clinton, however, should be careful not to link terrorism
in India to the political situation in Jammu and Kashmir, she
argued.

Another expert, Evan Feigenbaum, senior fellow for East,
Central and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations,
said that Clinton would be continuing with the agenda of the
previous Bush Administration.

This is because the Indo-US relationship has reached the
phase of bipartisan support and the American leadership feels
it is important for national security and economic prosperity
to deepen the strategic tie up with India, he argued.

"I think she's in a position to, as I say in this expert
brief, reap the harvest of what has been an utterly
transformational decade in US-India relations," Feigenbaum
said.

Curtis said the Secretary of State will likely try to
assuage concerns among some people that Obama Administration
lacks the Bush Administration's determination to advance the
relationship.

Clinton should also make it clear that Pakistan must
crackdown on terrorist groups within its borders, like the
Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), the group responsible for the Mumbai
carnage, Curtis said.

LeT leader Hafiz Muhammed Sayeed's early release from
jail has shed fresh doubt on the Pakistani commitment to act
against the terrorist group, she pointed out.

Observing that the US gains little by continuing to
publicly press for a resumption of Indo-Pakistani talks as an
end in itself, she said it should instead quietly encourage
changes in the dynamics of the Indo-Pak relationship that will
reduce tensions and uproot terrorism from the region.

Curtis said Indian strategic thinkers have expressed
concern that Obama advisors appear less sceptical of China and
its role in the region than the Bush team and are more
interested in placating the Chinese than in strengthening
India.

"These misgivings have developed at the same time that
Indian concerns regarding China and its regional intentions
are increasing," she said.

Meanwhile, Feigenbaum, who in the Bush Administration,
headed India desk at the State Department in the capacity as
the Deputy Secretary of State for South Asia, said: "I think
the agenda is going to be broadly consistent with the agenda
of the last administration."

Feigenbaum said it is essentially bipartisan nature of
US-India relations right now on both the sides -- both
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) governments in India have taken steps to
improve the relationship, while Republican and Democratic
administrations in the US take steps to further the relations.

"So it's a largely bipartisan agenda, in many ways.
She'll be building in many ways on what her predecessors have
done," he argued.

The expert pointed out issues relevant to both the
countries -- defence, civil space, climate change and some
arms control treaties.

He said that given the global scenario and emergence of
India as a major power, Washington and New Delhi should talk
about their common interests around the world, not just in
South Asia. PTI