Jane Perlez
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TitlUS ready to end sanctions on India to build an alliance Author: Jane Perlez Publictaion: New York Times DatAugust 27. 2001 WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 - The Bush administration is moving on a broad front to strengthen relations with India, a nation it views as a neglected and potentially important strategic ally and trading partner in Asia. The most dramatic step the administration will take, officials say, is the almost certain lifting of American economic and military sanctions imposed on India in 1998 for its test of a nuclear weapon. Senior administration officials say Congress will be asked to lift the sanctions when it returns next month. Some of the most senior legislators, including the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, favor the move. Senator Biden said in an interview that he had sent a letter to President Bush last week expressing his support and indicating that the sanctions could be removed in time for a possible meeting between Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in New York in late September. Mr. Bush is also planning a visit to India early next year. The sanctions were symbolic as much as practical, the officials said. Lifting them now would remove a significant irritant to closer ties. But it would also signal that the United States - after being surprised and chagrined by India's nuclear test three years ago - had little choice but to accept that India, the second most populous nation, had elbowed its way into the nuclear club. The reversal is not as awkward as it might once have been, given the administration's own opposition to a nuclear-test-ban treaty and its desire to build a missile shield against what it increasingly seems to regard as the inevitable spread of missile technology and weapons of mass destruction. In short, as one official said, the United States had to face the fact that India was a nuclear power and that "the genie could not be put back in the bottle." One senior official said the administration was also likely to ask Congress to lift some sanctions against India's neighbor and rival, Pakistan, which detonated its own nuclear weapon in a tit-for-tat test just weeks after India did. But Senator Biden said he was not prepared to go along with the request for Pakistan, which has since come under military rule. In the most direct explanation of the administration's position, Robert B. Zoellick, the United States trade representative, told an audience in New Delhi earlier this month, "The United States wants to treat India realistically for what it is - a major country and an emerging power. "We want to engage India in a strategic dialogue that encompasses the full range of global issues," he added. "The United States appreciates that India's influence clearly extends far beyond South Asia." Mr. Zoellick, the first member of President Bush's cabinet to visit India, said Washington wanted to work with India on fighting terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons, promoting human rights and protecting the environment. He also urged India to drop its resistance to the start of a new round of trade talks by the World Trade Organization, in Doha, Qatar, in October. India's strong voice on behalf of developing countries contributed to the breakdown of the last round, in Seattle in 1999. Another high-ranking Bush official, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, said this month in Sydney, Australia: "India is a nuclear power. There are a lot of reasons we ought to engage with India, and we're going to." Mr. Armitage noted that the Indian-American population in the United States was "very high-tech oriented, very organized, very politically astute, a very helpful" factor in American politics. In urging the lifting of sanctions, senior Bush officials said, they are not seeking a quid pro quo. They say the end of sanctions will itself produce a closer dialogue and, for example, possibly lead India to tighten its controls on the manufacture of material for nuclear weapons. The sanctions bar military exports to India and any exports to companies believed to be connected to India's nuclear program. Lifting them now would open the way for joint military operations and the sale of nonnuclear weapons technology to India. The warming trend toward India, which led a nonaligned movement during the cold war and had friendly relations with the Soviet Union and now Russia, is not new. A visit by President Clinton to India in 2000 went a long way toward breaking down years of mistrust. But Mr. Clinton's efforts to improve ties were complicated by India's nuclear test. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Bush spoke of India as an important but needlessly ignored country, and praised the Indian-American community, one of the wealthiest in the United States and one that includes generous donors to congressional campaigns. In particular, officials said, the Bush administration is pleased by India's openness to what has become the president's major foreign policy goal: missile defense. During a visit in April, the Indian foreign and defense minister, Jaswant Singh, was invited for a surprise tÍte-ý-tÍte with President Bush. Officials said Mr. Singh was sympathetic to key elements of the administration's missile plan, even though some experts have warned that a shield could set off an arms race across Asia if China builds up its arsenal in response. But the deputy secretary, Mr. Armitage, and others went out of their way to declare that the relaxation toward India was not motivated by a desire to create a counterweight to China. "Whenever you try to establish a relationship with a country which is based on a third country, then you're doomed to failure," he said. Senator Biden agrees. "I don't view this as playing India off China," he said. "There are all kinds of reasons to treat them as they are - a great nation." Indeed, India and the United States share a potentially broad range of security interests, particularly given India's location on the Subcontinent, which bridges the Far East and the Islamic world. Both nations have an interest in countering Islamic extremism, particularly in Pakistan, which New Delhi and Washington have each accused of receiving weapons technology from China. India has also accused Pakistan of supporting Islamic militants in disputed Kashmir. And though its relations with Beijing have slowly improved, New Delhi has long been conscious of the need to balance against China, which the United States sees a fast-emerging strategic rival in the Pacific. In the long term, strategic planners preparing for China's expanding military presence see a new friendliness between United States and India as potentially very helpful. Among the top American officials to visit India in recent months was Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "How much do we care about India, qua India, or because it's close to China?" asked George R. Perkovich, an arms expert at the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a philanthropic group based in Charlottesville, Va., who has written extensively about India, suggesting that China was indeed on the administration's mind as it thinks about India. In addition, both India and the United States have expressed an interest in reducing tensions over Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have had several military conflicts. With the addition of nuclear weapons to the region, Mr. Clinton said, the Subcontinent had become "the most dangerous place in the world." By lifting the sanctions on India, Senator Biden said, the United States would be "setting an example for Pakistan," a reference to India's relatively good behavior on selling nuclear-related materials to other countries. Pakistan has a poorer record, administration officials said. The United States has also been frustrated by Pakistan's inability to restore a democratic government since Gen. Pervez Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, and India's place as the largest democracy dovetails neatly with Washington's interest in promoting democracy abroad. Aware of the possibility of creating an "India only" policy, however, American officials said Pakistan, a strong ally in the 1980's, should not be relegated to the dust heap. "This is not an either/or game with Pakistan," one senior official said. In particular, officials acknowledged that Washington does not want to alienate Pakistan for fear of encouraging Islamic extremists there or giving them reason to strengthen ties to the fundamentalist Taliban government in Afghanistan. "The United States is not interested in Pakistan becoming more under the influence of Afghanistan," said Mr. Armitage. "There has to be a way out for Pakistan. We're going to play an effective role." While officials said the administration would seek to remove the sanctions imposed on Pakistan in 1998 because of its nuclear tests, other sanctions - including those imposed after General Musharraf's coup - would remain in place. Finally, officials said, the administration sees India as an enticing trade partner, but one that must do much more to reform its economy. Mr. Zoellick urged India to do so, noting that the United States was responsible for 15 percent of India's international trade. "You will not be surprised if I observe that the emerging strategic relationship between our two great democracies will not be resilient and growing if we fail to draw our economies closer together," he said. "I am seeking close governmental cooperation on trade - bilaterally and for the global trading system." Mr. Bush has appointed a new ambassador in India, Robert D. Blackwill, to cultivate ties. Mr. Blackwill was one of a handful of close foreign policy advisers, known as the Vulcans, who guided Mr. Bush during his presidential campaign. Moreover, Mr. Blackwill was the boss of Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, when they both served on the National Security Council for the president's father. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ofbjp.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A worldwide community of BJP's friends, supporters and activists: Friends of the BJP - Worldwid http://www.ofbjp.org/fob ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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