As President George W Bush prepares to visit India from March 1, the US has said the relationship between the two countries has been institutionalised, stands on its own and is not directed against any third country.
"One of the things about this kind of relationship between India and the United States is that it's at the point where, in some sense, it's been institutionalised," Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said previewing the three-day visit of the president to India.
"When relations between two countries are in an early stage, everybody focusses on what's the deliverable for the trip, because in some sense, trips are the only times you get agreements and you move forward in the relationship," he told reporters at the White House briefing room.
Hadley said, "A lot of the relationship is now institutionalised. There's a business dialogue, there's economic dialogue, there's energy dialogues, and a lot of those things have produced statements and agreements and joint programmes that the president (Bush) and the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) will be able to ratify and bless."
"So I think there's going to be a lot of things. But, again, it's not three or four major initiatives. It's the kind of relationship whereby you'll see, I think, a range of agreements, understandings, next steps, across a broad range of issues that will show that the relationship is moving forward, and really is pretty institutionalised at this."
Hadley also stressed that the US' relationship with India stands on its own and not to be seen as some kind of a "balance" vis-a-vis China.