Hillary will try to put Indo-US ties back on track

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during her four-day visit to India for the second Indo-US Strategic Dialogue on July 19, is expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including some of the irritants that have emerged in the otherwise deepening political and economic relationship.

India and the US have developed a better understanding of each other as their bilateral cooperation has grown stronger in some areas like trade and investment and combating terrorism. But some concerns and irritants have cropped up at various times over the US support to Nuclear Suppliers Group's recent ban on transfer of uranium enrichment and reprocessing technology as well as curbs on outsourcing and restrictions on travel of Indian IT professionals to the US.

The Strategic Dialogue, co-chaired by Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, will involve discussions on South-East Asia, Africa and Latin America. The range of subjects for discussion has broadened dramatically in the past two years, US Charge d'Affaires Peter Burleigh said. It has expanded to include a host of issues, several of them non-traditional issues such as the situation in the Middle East where the two sides hold fairly divergent views.

Both sides will talk about their relations with Pakistan. India's dialogue process with Pakistan is continuing, with the foreign ministers slated to meet later this month while US ties with Pakistan have spiralled to a low after the former killed the Al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden at a hideout in Pakistan and Washington announced a cut in its military aid to Pakistan.

The two sides have a shared interest in Afghanistan; they have been holding regular consultations on the situation in Afghanistan. With the US initiating preliminary contacts with the Taliban, the Indian side would be keen on knowing more about the substance of the US engagement with the Taliban and the impact of the recent assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and an influential figure in southern Afghanistan. India and the US have a growing similarity of interests in East Asia and the India and Pacific Ocean region.

The Americans took umbrage at being knocked out of the race for the jet fighter deal on technical grounds; but the angry reactions were partially assuaged with the recently finalised deal for the C-14 Globemaster heavy duty military transport aircraft. The Indian side is still wary of the American stance on the transfer of ENR technology, especially since the NSG's decision to ban transfer of ENR technology to States that are not signatories to the NPT is seen to target India. The Americans are concerned over the Indian nuclear liability legislation which they hold makes it difficult for American companies to do business in India in the nuclear field.

India would like a reiteration from the US that it would not go back on its assurances over supply of ENR technology. It would also seek further information on Washington's efforts in support of India's membership of the nuclear export control regimes such as the NSG, the Wassenar Arrangement, and the Australia Group. After the NSG ban, there has been more vocal opposition to India's membership to the NSG from some of its members at the recent plenary meeting.

Significantly, the official spokesman of the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement posted on the ministry's website that the new guidelines adopted by the NSG to ban the sale of ENR technology to NPT non-signatories would not apply to India. This unambiguous statement was made just a few days before the Indo-US Strategic Dialogue was due to take place.

The strategic dialogue mechanism has come to be regarded as a very effective mechanism to maintain the momentum of our rapidly deepening and expanding global strategic partnership, said Vishnu Prakash, spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs.

Five broad areas of mutual interest form the core of the bilateral dialogue: strategic cooperation; counter-terrorism and defence; energy and climate change; education and global health challenges; and trade and agriculture. Under these broad heads there have been meetings of the defence policy group and the high technology cooperation group in recent weeks. The first India-US homeland security dialogue took place in May and the joint working group on counter-terrorism met in March to discuss threat assessment, intelligence-sharing and other ways of combating terrorism.

The composition of the two delegations give an indication of the wide range of issues that would be discussed at the meeting. Hillary Clinton will be accompanied by a 25-member delegation including top counter-terrorism officials, director of national intelligence, James R Clapper, US lead negotiator on climate talks, Todd Stern, assistant to President on science and technology and officials from the energy department, homeland security, US Import and Export Bank and other departments.

The Indian delegation will include Deputy Chairperson Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Advisor to Prime Minister Sam Pitroda, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, Foreign Secretary-designate Ranjan Mathai, home secretary, commerce secretary, education secretary, environment secretary, secretary, science and technology, and director, Intelligence Bureau.

Among the new agreements that are likely to be signed during the visit are MOUs on cyber security and civil aviation safety; the latter would pave the way for Indian aeronautical exports to the US. An important initiative that is scheduled to take place in Washington in October this year is the India-US higher education summit, contours of which will be decided during the strategic dialogue.

The US secretary of state will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meet United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

On July 21, Clinton will visit Chennai, becoming the first US secretary of state to do so; Chennai has gained in importance for the US as it is on the way to becoming an important centre for US trade and investment and contact with the people. The American consulate in Chennai issues the highest number of American visas in India (1.42 lakh in 2010) compared to its four other centres, including Delhi. Clinton will visit the Ford Motor plant outside Chennai and in an outreach programme will hold a town hall meeting with Indian students before flying out to Indonesia.