| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Analysis: U.S: India may shift geostrategy |
| 2003-06-10 |
| (edited by me for brevity) India's Deputy Prime Minister, Lal Krishna Advani, begins three days of talks in Washington with the Bush administration that will touch on a project, which if realized, would shift the geostrategic tectonic plates of Asia. The importance the administration has given to Advani's visit, which begins on Monday, is indicated by whom he will see. They are Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who he has already met, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. When Advani sees Rice, President Bush is expected to drop by. The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and its attendant Islamist terrorism, will certainly figure in the talks. The administration wants to see an end to this source of instability in South Asia, the cause of two wars between India and Pakistan and that has come close more than once to starting a third. Important as Kashmir is, Advani and his American interlocutors will also be talking about something much grander. Rice gave a vague hint of what was in the air when she told the media early this month the talks would reflect the fact that India is the world's biggest democracy "and we share a lot in value." As well as sharing a lot in value, the United States and India share a lot in interests. These include instability in Pakistan where, in Indian eyes at least, President Pervez Musharraf is a spent force and Islamist violence is threatening the country. But more important still is a shared uneasiness, if not downright fear, of China, seen as aspiring to become the regional hegemon. |
| Posted by:Secret Master |
| #9 Aris: Seriously, what's up with you and this "Perfidious Albion" thing? I thought that meme died with the Kaiser. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-06-10 23:12:38 |
| #8 Or better yet UK can surrender its seat... ;) Other than that I find it very amusing, how half the time France is called the all-powerful dominating country in a union of nations greater in population than the United States, and the rest of time it's called "irrelevant"... :-D Anyway, once EU has a common foreign policy, France and UK can give up their seats to the EU, and the vacant space be given to India... :-) |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2003-06-10 22:28:47 |
| #7 Boot the French from the UN, nominate India to take their place. Worlds largest democracy should have a seat at the big table, not some irrelevant country like France. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-06-10 17:59:26 |
| #6 Why we have been involved in a 50 pissing match with the Indian government is something I for one have never understood. Of course the Indians will have their own opinions as they should but policies in Washington have repeatedly driven them to the oppisite side of issues. One thing we could do is promote India as a new permement member of the UN Security Council. Of course that would tick off the IslamoFascists. But they already hate us anyway....... |
| Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire 2003-06-10 17:03:03 |
| #5 Finally, someone is identifying the real enemy. I had heard we might be talking about a south asia form of NATO to contain China. That would br progress. Of course, we would have to have the foresight to disband the alliance once the Chinese communists are defeated. |
| Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-06-10 16:33:22 |
| #4 With a free-trade zone, I think that the entrepreneurs would take care of the issue. |
| Posted by: Ralph 2003-06-10 16:17:15 |
| #3 hopefully the GOVERNMENT of India will do no such thing. India has done as well as it has lately, by letting entrepreneurs make whatever is profitable. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-06-10 16:03:42 |
| #2 *nods* Excellent Idea, Yank. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-06-10 15:57:45 |
| #1 India should look at everything the US imports from China and start producing the stuff itself. Combine that with a free-trade deal with the US and India could become a great power by the end of the decade, mostly at the expense of China. Win-win. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-06-10 15:08:30 |