Speaker: Alok Prasad,
Clinton
's visit, and they had acquired a certain maturity. Little realized was the fact that Indians now accepted the inevitability of doing business with the
United States
. On the institutional side one round of dialogues with the
US
had been completed on the several issues identified during the
Clinton
visit. The Foreign Minister had formal meetings with Madeleine Albright and Strobe Talbott. An important area of cooperation had opened with the anti-terrorism dialogue.
India
was placing a draft treaty before the UN General Assembly, which had the support of the
US
.
India
. However, US basic interests lay in climate change issues,
India
's interests were focussed on the energy sector, which needed to reform if it was to grow. The unbundling of generation and transmission would allow meaningful privatization to occur.
India
's favour being $6 bn. This was apart from some $ 5 bn in software exports from
India
to the
US
. The weakness in this trade relationship was that the export basket was not changing and continued to be dominated by textiles and other traditional items. Still, the requirement for US finance, apart from technology, had to be accepted, and so was the need for
India
to improve its investment climate.
US
had to accept that
India
would behave as a responsible nuclear weapon state.
India
needed to accept that hi-tech imports would remain embargoed; the removal of current sanctions was linked to "concrete" steps being taken like signing the CTBT. On the strategic side,
India
must appreciate that the
United States
was only accepting it on the margins of the Asian power balance. Was
India
prepared for a larger role? This was unclear. Possibly, Indo-US relations would, in time, acquire the same texture as French-US relations.
US
pressure
Pakistan
on cross-border terrorism and the Taliban? Here it was believed that the
US
would exercise that leverage, if at all, in its own interests, not
India
's interests. The
US
was deeply troubled by the Taliban phenomenon. That is why it was making counter-terrorism cooperation with
India
a major area of bilateral cooperation, as existed between it and
Israel
/
United Kingdom
.
United States
playing a pro-active role in
Kashmir
? This seemed unlikely, as the
US
was not buying the line that everything happening in
Kashmir
was due to terrorism; terrorism was defined in terms of its being directed against civilians. For that matter, the
US
did not buy the Pakistani line on jihad, either.
India
testing again? It was clear that the Republican opposition to the
US
ratifying the CTBT was informed by the personal animus of its leaders to President Clinton, although it was known that they favoured no ban on testing. But, the Democrats and Republicans had no serious differences on the non-proliferation question, as it was in the American national interests to freeze the size of the Nuclear Club. Perhaps the CTBT would never be ratified, but would be naïve for
India
to believe it would not be pressured to join that Treaty and conform by its provisions against field-testing.
India
, particularly the Embassy in
Washington
, to organize the NRIs to promote
India
's cause? The Kashmiri NRIs were getting into the act, and their organizations were largely inimical to
India
. It was felt that the NRIs were not particularly interested in Indo-US relations, and their importance should not be exaggerated, despite their success in the IT sector; neither could the NRIs become
India
's main interlocutors. Moreover, second generation NRIs saw themselves as Americans and not Indians. Still, NRI business groups had done useful work in changing attitudes on the Hill. The
India
caucus was helping to promote
India
's point of view. NRIs could also help in bringing US legislators to
India
to see things for themselves. It was agreed that NRIs should get into, as they were, South Asian studies in the Universities and think tanks, but it was disconcerting that American scholars per se were losing interest in this area.
Pakistan
, their policy towards
Kashmir
, and
China
, and the likelihood of a China-Russia nexus developing in future, the speaker deprecated the tendency in
India
to find conspiracy theories where there were none. The
US
did not equate
China
with
India
did to obvious differences in their effective power. China-Russia relations could not develop beyond a point as both considered their relations with the
United States
to be more important. The
US
was deeply concerned with the need for a solution to the
Kashmir
problem; this had to be found by
India
and
Pakistan
. It was not especially interested in the terms of their agreement. An unfreezing of the
Kashmir
problem had occurred after the ceasefire, and this process had to be carried forward expeditiously.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs
Initiating this Friday Group discussion the speaker stated that, undoubtedly a qualitative change had come about in Indo-US relations after
At the bilateral level the sub-groups established for science and technology and energy were doing useful work. The latter was discussing the transfer of technology pertaining to coal gasification and improving the efficiency of motors; both were of great interest to
Further, bilateral trade was doing well and had reached $ 12 bn. annually, with the balance of trade in
The nuclear area represented the prime area of disagreement. The
During the discussions the issue of Pak-US relations came up repeatedly. Would the
Would the
Could the possible induction of a Republican Administration after the elections alter equations; specifically, would it be averse to
Was it possible for
Reverting to US relations with
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