Round The World
New Delhi, 2 December 2009
Obama-Singh Summit
DISPELS FEARS, BOOSTS
NEW IDEAS
By Chintamani
Mahapatra
(Professor, American
Studies, JNU)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent mission to Washington to hold
summit level meeting with President Barrack Obama has broken no new grounds.
But, it was not expected to.
However, that does not mean it was an insignificant trip by
Prime Minister Singh to the United
States. The uneventful US-Indian relationship,
with the solitary exception of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India last
July, actually is indicative of the importance of Singh-Obama summit meeting.
Ever since he entered the White House, President Obama had
been more than pre-occupied with pressing and urgent issues to take note of,
rather than the need to further broaden and strengthen relations with India. These
included, the planned withdrawal of troops from Iraq,
a proposed policy to focus more intensely on tackling the Taliban and Al Qaeda
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the
need to restore domestic economic normalcy and to come to terms with
anti-Americanism in the Muslim World. All this have kept the Obama
Administration so busy and engaged that he had little to say or do on the
US-Indian relationship.
It is true that India
was in the midst of a national election and the Obama Administration officials
were awaiting a clearer political picture in New Delhi before taking any high- level
initiative. But the early position of the new US administration on the Kashmir
issue, attempt to bracket India with Pakistan and Afghanistan, while appointing
a new envoy to the region, reaffirmation of campaign promises to seek
Senatorial ratification of the CTBT etc. did generate a certain amount of
apprehension and anxiety in the strategic community in New Delhi.
Would Washington under the
Obama dispensation bring the contentious nuclear issues with India back to
its foreign policy agenda? Would the 123 Agreement on civilian nuclear
cooperation be put on the back-burner? Had bipartisan support for an enhanced
level of strategic partnership ended with the Bush Administration?
The marginal place allotted to Washington’s
relations with New Delhi did not go unnoticed
even in the US.
Some analysts warned that Obama’s relative silence on Indian affairs could
prove costly unless something was done in time. Hillary Clinton chose to go to China and even Indonesia
in her maiden visit to Asia as the new Secretary of State, but not to India! As and
when she came to India and
made several statements suggesting importance given to New Delhi by the Obama Presidency, some
analysts pointed out that the State Department’s role in national security
affairs of the Obama Administration was not adequate and that Hilary did not
always have the sympathetic ears of the President.
To silence the critics as well as skeptics and to set at
rest unnecessary speculations, an Obama-Singh summit was essential. Well, that
happened in the recent past.
It was President George Bush and Prime Minister Singh who
together crafted and then cemented a new Indo-US strategic partnership by
successfully negotiating a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. President
Obama could either bolster it further or pour cold water on it.
What then was the outcome of the summit? First of all, in a
joint Press conference President Obama said that “as nuclear “powers” the two
countries would fight proliferation of nuclear weapons and work towards the
establishment of a nuclear weapons’ free world. Referring to India as a nuclear power, bang in front of the
media and in the very presence of Prime Minister Singh itself lent an enormous
legitimacy and credibility to the de facto status of India as a nuclear weapon power.
Secondly, the two leaders stated their commitment for an
early and full implementation of the 123 agreement. As was made known
subsequently, an agreement on reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel was on the
last legs of negotiations when Prime Minister Singh landed in Washington. Now there is sufficient ground
to believe that the civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries
remains on the plate.
Thirdly, Obama and Singh took a new initiative to work
together on the crucial agricultural field not just bilaterally but
internationally. Given the world of hunger and poverty in the globe, this
initiative is truly strategic in nature.
Fourthly, the announcement of a new “Obama-Singh” initiative
to expand educational exchanges is perhaps the most significant element in the
overall outcome of the summit. Here the goal is to intensify and broaden
contacts between the students of the two nations. Today’s students are
tomorrow’s leaders. There is no better way to cement a long-term strategic
partnership than to nurture cooperation through educational cooperation.
In addition to all these important schemes, the two leaders
also emphasized the need to deepen cooperation in countering terrorism and host
of other areas. However, it was amply clear that there would be a difference in
their methods of countering terrorism. Obama recalled the tragic event of
Mumbai 26/11, but made it plain and simple that Pakistan would continue to be the
frontline State in his administration’s war against the Taliban and the Al
Qaeda.
This makes it crystal clear that the US’ hands would remain tied when it comes to the
question of dealing with anti-India terrorist groups based in Pakistan.
Nonetheless, Prime Minister Singh expressed his satisfaction over the dialogue
with President Obama on issues related to terrorism in the sub-continent. One
hopes that while the US
would not push Pakistan too
much, it would pressurize Islamabad
to distance itself from anti-India terror groups.
Last, but not the least the summit seems to have set at rest
concerns that the Obama Administration was seeking to outsource the solution of
South Asian problems to China.
This was the impression created from a joint Obama-Hu Jintao statement during
the former’s China
trip. But President Obama made a loud and clear announcement that his
administration sees in India
an emerging global player and an Asian leader and vowed to cooperate with India in maintaining peace and stability in Asia.
China’s clarification before Singh’s
departure for the US that it
was not interested in meddling with South Asian issues and that all outstanding
issues between India and Pakistan should
be solved through bilateral negotiations was helpful too. Truly, China is part of the South Asian problem by
possessing some Kashmiri territories ceded to it by Pakistan
and by being an active collaborator in Pakistan’s WMD programmes.
Therefore, Beijing
can be assigned the role of a judge or a sheriff.
Obama administration’s earlier statements on Kashmir and its
attempt to bracket India
with Afghanistan and Pakistan and the recent statements in China did
create misperceptions and apprehensions. Fortunately, the Obama-Singh summit
appears to have removed these fears and misunderstandings if any. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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