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Extended Clinton visit at right time, says Celeste

US President Bill Clinton will visit India -- at a more "propitious" time.

That appeared to be the underlying tenor of US Ambassador Richard Celeste's thoughts, expressed to the Confederation of Indian Industry (Northern Region).

Celeste was responding to questions -- critical ones -- pointing out that Clinton's planned one day stopover in India was clearly discriminatory, as compared to the nine day visit he paid to China recently.

"Well," said Celeste, "let me confess that when I met Mr Clinton on May 6, he told me that India was a country that deserved more than a week. However, you see, a longer visit should come at a time when we can look forwards, not backwards."

Admitting that Indo-US relations were going through a difficult phase just now, Celeste characterised the scenario as "a disagreement between two friends".

Such misunderstandings, he said, "need not go on endlessly and indeed, it would not be in the best interests of either nation."

A resolution of such misunderstandings, the US diplomat felt, was inevitable, and the first signs of a thaw could be seen in the ongoing talks between India's special envoy Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, as also Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

"These talks have been progressing well, they are designed to bring Indo-US relations back on the right track," said Celeste.

The US diplomat tended to downplay the sanctions imposed by his country on India in the wake of the nuclear tests of May 11, saying that they were inevitable given the compulsions of American law.

"Sanctions were unavoidable in the circumstances, but I am sure that as the special envoys of both nations hold their bilateral talks, we will soon be able to reconcile our various interests," Celeste said, adding, "Much hard work, and serious efforts, are underway to sort out the differences, it is just a matter of time."

The ambassador reiterated that sanctions would not affect private business collaborations between US investors and Indian firms. "Barring certain items of export that require a license, nothing else should be affected," he told his audience.

Celeste tackled the question of India's security concerns head on, saying, "While we respect the right of India to decide matters relating to its own security, surely we have the right to disagree when we see fit -- that is why the need arose for serious discussion."

The envoy argued that it was in India's own best interests to sign the CTBT, pointing out that 150 other nations had already done that. "We do not want a situation in this part of the world where tensions are heightened, where India's missiles are pointed at Pakistan and vice versa," he said.

Asked whether the US had the moral right to dictate nuclear responsibility to others, Celeste claimed that his country was destroying nuclear warheads on an almost daily basis. "As against 20,000 warheads we had recently, we have only 10,000 today, but even that is too much."

Returning to the question of the preferential treatment given to China by the US even in the field of trade and industry, Celeste argued, "Well, the Chinese had opened up their economy way back in the seventies when, as a matter of fact, India was chasing foreign investors out of here. India went in for liberalisation only as late as 1991, so there is bound to be some difference," he argued, adding, "And besides, the overseas Chinese community has also been more aggressive in putting back investments in their homeland, while NRIs merely talk on those lines, without really doing much."

Stressing that India needed a "target-oriented, time bound approach" towards liberalisation, Celeste said that the "administration should be able to translate plans and vision into action, that will be the key to improving US investments in India."

The US ambassador, who had held separate meetings with UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, also visited various projects in Kanpur that were funded under the Rs 100 million USAID population control programme. "I am impressed by the success of this programme executed through an autonomous society," Celeste said, pointing out that this was the largest project of its kind under USAID in any part of the world.

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