Obama should not lose sight on India: Burns

Washington, Nov 24 (PTI) Barack Obama should use Prime
Minister of India Manmohan Singh's visit here to push for
stronger military and strategic ties between the two countries
and the President is uniquely positioned to help India and
Pakistan avoid the "nightmare fear of war", says a former US
diplomat.

Nicholas Burns, the lead negotiator on the Indo-US
nuclear deal, said Obama faces a classic diplomatic challenge
in South Asia - how to balance a short-term need for progress
in Afghanistan and Pakistan without losing sight of "our
equally important long-term ambitions with India."

"To be fair, India is a difficult and irresolute
partner on some of the issues, particularly climate. But,
Obama can act more vigorously to restore the energy on India
left to him by his predecessors," Burns wrote in 'Boston
Globe', published Tuesday hours before the Singh-Obama meet.

US should work "more actively" behind the scenes to
urge India and Pakistan to restore their Composite Dialogue,
reduce bilateral tensions, and commit to progress on the
Kashmir issue, he wrote.

"As the United States is now the key power broker in
the region, Obama is uniquely positioned to help nuclear-armed
India and Pakistan avoid the nightmare fear of war that has
bedeviled their relations since Partition in 1947," he said.

Burns said Obama should push for stronger military and
strategic ties between the two countries.

"India is a natural military partner of the United
States given our common interest in resisting terrorism in
South Asia and beyond," he wrote in the aticle 'Ways Obama can
tend bonds with India'.

Burns wrote: "Our navies and air forces, in
particular, have trained and worked effectively together in
recent years. Our defence ties will be transformed should
India decide to purchase advanced American military technology
to replace its ageing and outdated Russian equipment."

He said India must be more sensitive to Pakistani
concerns over its involvement in Afghanistan while Islamabad
should finally prosecute the terrorists responsible for last
November's reprehensible Mumbai attacks.

India is focused on making a dramatic reduction in
poverty among its 700 million poor, Burns said and added that
Obama could offer assistance from America's Midwestern land-
grant institutions that were pivotal in achieving historic
breakthroughs in Indian food production four decades ago.

"The president could build on common US-India
strengths in education and science by proposing more
significant cooperation in space research and environmental
technologies that would play to the comparative advantage of
our private sectors and the 100,000 Indian students in US."

Obama should embrace this moment (when he meets Singh)
to restore direction to our partnership with India that has
been among the most positive bipartisan foreign policy
successes of the last two administrations, Burns wrote.PTI ETB
SDE
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