Round The World

New Delhi, 22 July 2009  

Hillary Visit

HISTORIC, OVER-ARCHING DIPLOMACY

By Prof. Chintamani Mahapatra, JNU

After months of near marginalization, the Obama Administration sprang a pleasant surprise by sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India on a five-day visit. This trip is as important as the five-day path breaking visit paid by her husband President Bill Clinton in March 2000 to India.

The significance of this visit is clearly reflected in the fact that never before in history has a US Secretary of State come to India for such a long duration of time; met with such a vast cross-section of people, come with such wide-ranging agenda items and signed three significant agreements. Never before a top US administration official was so warmly greeted by the business community, academia and political leaders and threw so much positive energy into the bilateral relations, as Hillary Clinton did.

During her visit, Hillary announced a firm date, 24 November, for the first State invitation to a head of government to visit the White House. Although many commentators alluded to her skipping India during her maiden visit to Asia as Secretary of State and complained that she put only China and Indonesia on her itinerary, this July visit here more than compensates what she would have missed.

One of the newest initiatives of Secretary Clinton during her visit was to go beyond traditional meetings with the Government officials and engage in over-arching public diplomacy.  Significantly, she chose to land first in the nation’s finance capital, Mumbai, and interacted with business tycoons, such as Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata.

It signified the need for an Indo-US economic cooperation at a time of global recession and unprecedented US economic crisis. Apparently, India’s economic success stories in recent years and a positive growth rate amidst the recession has drawn the US’ attention to the need for a more robust engagement with India in trade and investment cooperation.

More importantly, India has of late become one of the largest arms bazaars in the world. Its intention to buy 126 fighter aircraft is a business involving billions of dollars. The American companies, particularly Lockheed Martin and Boeing have shown much interest to sell their aircraft but they of course would have to compete with Russia and a few European countries.

However, the Obama Administration views the ‘126 deal’ as a timely effort that could partly assist meeting the current crisis in its national economy. But this would not be possible, unless the two countries sign an “end-use-monitoring” agreement that would ensure that the US equipment and technology would not be diverted to unintended sectors or destinations abroad. Indeed, Secretary Clinton was able to persuade New Delhi to sign such an agreement.

Like the 126 deal, implementation of the 123 Agreement, relating to the civilian nuclear cooperation too has the potential to uplift the US economy. It so happens that while the American nuclear industry has been in doldrums, India’s nuclear energy market is worth over $30 billion. Moreover, successful US-Indian nuclear energy cooperation has the potential of creating about 20,000 jobs in the US. 

There were, however, anxious moments in certain quarters in New Delhi that the Obama Administration could soft-pedal the 123 Agreement and some even went to the extent of reading the G-8 summit statement on non-proliferation as an additional pressure on India to sign the NPT and CTBT. But Secretary Clinton made it amply clear on Indian soil that the US is very much interested in timely implementation of the 123 agreement. India, on its part, announced two places —Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat—as nuclear energy parks earmarked for the US companies to set up power generating nuclear reactors.

Two other important highlights of the Clinton initiatives to make US-Indian relations broader and deeper were in the field of educational and agricultural cooperation. Her interactions with college students both in Mumbai and Delhi were unprecedented efforts by the US State Department to engage directly with the Indian public.

These steps were intended to generate goodwill for the US among our masses. The UPA Government’s pro-farmer policies are by now well-known and by proposing agricultural cooperation between the two countries, Clinton sought to touch an issue which would relate directly with the Indian masses.

This apart, an international issue that bitterly divides the two nations, is that of climate change. India along with other developing countries opposes an effort by the US and other advanced countries to put a compulsory cap on carbon emission. Hillary Clinton has sought to convince New Delhi the need for a compromise solution before the Copenhagen Summit of this December. While no concession appears to have been made so far, this being a multilateral issue, the two countries need not lock horns beyond a certain point.

Yet another major issue that was addressed by Secretary Clinton was Indo-Pakistan relations and terrorism. Clinton urged India to assist Islamabad in combating terrorism. While New Delhi has been in the forefront of fighting terrorism in the region, it is concerned about official Pakistani connection with Pakistan-based anti-Indian terrorist networks. And as such, the UPA Government had announced that it was unwilling to restart the composite dialogue process with Pakistan, unless the perpetrators of Mumbai 26/11 were brought to justice.

Significantly, a few noteworthy developments took place a little before Clinton arrived and during her stay. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Pakistani counterpart in Egypt and a joint statement was issued. Islamabad showed some evidence that it was taking appropriate steps to apprehend the alleged culprits of 26/11. It then admitted that the LeT was involved in 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. In addition, Kasaab, the lone surviving and captured terrorist suddenly confessed that he was part of the whole conspiracy to strike Mumbai on 26 November 2008.

Importantly, all these developments must have pleased the US Secretary of State. Overall, it turned out that the visit resolved many doubts about the Obama administration’s approach towards India. The apprehensions that this administration would not walk the extra mile to further elevate the relationship with India, from where his predecessor had left, proved to be misplaced.

While Condoleezza Rice characterized India as an emerging global power, Hillary Clinton engaged India as one of the major global powers. This recognition and the intention to engage India in a strategic dialogue make it evident that the bilateral relationship is on the right track. --INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)