Improving ties with India a ‘personal priority’ for Hillary Clinton

Setting the tone for the first-ever Indo-US strategic dialogue in Washington on Thursday, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said in her opening remarks that improving ties with India was a “personal priority”.

The decision to upgrade the dialogue to a higher political level was made during Clinton’s visit to India last summer.

External affairs minister SM Krishna and Clinton met at the state department with the American leader calling India a “rising global power”. Aware of New Delhi’s concerns on Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clinton acknowledged that “doubts that remained on both sides” had to be addressed. The strategic dialogue would give both sides the opportunity to talk about all issues which had plagued relations of late.

With business in mind, Clinton drove home the point that the US is keen to help modernise India’s military. In the past, nearly 80% of India’s military hardware came from Russia, but now Delhi is looking at the US to upgrade its defence forces. The US sees a cash-rich India as a massive market for its products.

It would want to be briefed about the nuclear liability legislation, which needs to be passed to allow American companies get a share of India’s multi-billion dollar nuclear market.

Evidently, there would be detailed discussions on the end-game in Afghanistan and reassuring noises from the state department that the US will not leave that country in a mess.

Clinton said India and the US have a stake in a stable and secure Afghanistan. Terror strikes from Afghanistan by the Taliban and al Qaeda forces will not just be a threat to India, but also to the US and the rest of the world.

“But not much can come from the strategic dialogue. The US, at the moment, is not in a position to give any assurances on Afghanistan. It needs Pakistan’s help to settle the situation there. The US is now in a strategic corner and apart from reassuring India cannot do much,” Naresh Chandra, former Indian envoy to Washington, said.

Krishna spoke on the need for greater co-operation between India and the US on counter-terrorism. After the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the level of co-operation between the two countries has grown, but much more can be done.

“The threat of trans-national terrorism requires both India and the US to cooperate more closely than ever before, though the epicentre of this threat lies in India’s neighbourhood it reaches far and wide all across the world as witnessed recently a few weeks back in Times Square,” Krishna said.

An Indian team in Chicago is waiting for access to David Coleman Headley in connection with the 26/11 terror plot. Though the US has given an assurance that the investigators would be allowed to question Headley, Krishna said counter-intelligence co-operations would mean giving each other access to detainees wanted by either side. It is “the logical next step”, he said.