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Obama-Singh Summit:DISPELS FEARS, BOOSTS NEW IDEAS,Chintamani Mahapatra, 2 December 2009 Print E-mail

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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