| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front |
| Bush Seeking Better U.S.-India Relations |
| 2004-01-21 |
| President Bush discussed with India’s foreign minister on Tuesday how the two countries can build on a strategic relationship Bush suggested last week. "The president congratulated the foreign minister on the important progress being made on the relationship between Pakistan and India," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said after the president’s 15-minute meeting with Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha. "They also discussed the next steps on the strategic partnership between India and the United States." Strategic partnership with the world’s most populous democracy. I like that. How ’bout you, Mahmoud? Last week, Bush announced an expansion in dialogue on proposed cooperation to expand engagement on nonmilitary nuclear regulatory and safety issues and missile defense, ways to enhance cooperation in peaceful uses of space technology and creation of the appropriate environment for successful high-technology commerce. Relations between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have moved ahead over the past couple of years. The announcement came just after nuclear-armed India and Pakistan took a historic step of proclaiming their desire to put a half-century of enmity behind them and renew peace talks. Later, Sinha met for almost 90 minutes with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who praised last week’s India-Pakistan agreement. With Sinha at his side, Powell told reporters the two sides "will be moving in an aggressive way and promptly" to implement the agreement announced last week. But, he added, the relationship goes well beyond that agreement. "There is no area of dialogue that we are not pursuing, and pursuing in a very profitable way," he said. Sinha said the discussions were conducted "in the friendliest and most cordial atmosphere. There is a great deal of meeting of the minds on most of these issues." Outstanding demonstration of cause-and-effect here: take a real step on the peace front, get talks moving on other things of interest. Wonder if the lesson will spread? |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #12 Goa was a third world backwater long before India siezed it. Actually, Goa was similar* to Portugal's other Asian holding, Macau, before India seized it. Macau's GDP (on a purchasing power parity basis) was $18,500 in 2002. India's (and by extension, Goa's) was $2,600. But this isn't atypical - from the Jewel of the Crown (i.e. the British empire) to one of the world's poorest countries - this is the legacy of India's inspired leadership. * That is, a pocket of the First World in the Third World. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-1-21 11:48:19 PM |
| #11 Mr. Outsider... this is the famed RantBurg where trolls are treasured and cuddled like baby ducks. But a RantBurg Troll is special and rare. And frankly you're not in this league. Have you considered BlogFoeAmerica? I understand it is very witty. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-21 4:04:58 PM |
| #10 BAR, he's probably some trust-fund baby ditching his 1 O'clock at Berkley. He's spending his afternoon coming up w/pithy one-liners as per the above submission but is not much for substance, prose, or content. Though I am sure he can drool like a champ. However, I'm just a dumb Marine led by a rogue terrorist and his cronies - so what do I know? Maybe OS can go to India and then report back to us the finer points of their governmental process and the benfits of the caste system. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-1-21 1:31:30 PM |
| #9 I trust India more than I trust America - only because Bush and his gang of merry terrorist are running the government. Sounds like "Outsider" is either a terrorist sympathizer or a pinko. Which one is it? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-21 12:49:56 PM |
| #8 Goa was a third world backwater long before India siezed it. |
| Posted by: john 2004-1-21 12:40:38 PM |
| #7 Good point, Outsider! Very witty! When will you move to India; or are you already there? What are you doing after study hall? |
| Posted by: Les Nessman 2004-1-21 12:32:18 PM |
| #6 I trust India more than I trust America - only because Bush and his gang of merry terrorist are running the government. |
| Posted by: Outsider 2004-1-21 12:20:57 PM |
| #5 Read any English language paper from India on the Internet, any day of the week - they read like the People's Daily, with an Indian twist. That would be China's People's Daily. You do have to read the Chinese version in translation (via Google or Altavista) to get some insight into what they're really thinking (and they're not nice, comforting thoughts). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-1-21 10:06:40 AM |
| #4 Given the UN is beyond useless so votes there count for nothing, I was still shocked by it. Why would you be shocked? Read any English language paper from India on the Internet, any day of the week - they read like the People's Daily, with an Indian twist. India is no status quo power - it has territorial claims all over the region*. Unlike China, which negotiated orderly handovers with Portugal and the UK over Macao and Hong Kong, India seized Goa** from Portugal (via invasion) in the 1960's. The result? Macao and Hong Kong have First World infrastructure and are the richest cities in China, whereas Goa is just another squalid Third World backwater. * These claims are in spite of the fact that India today is really the British empire in South Asia, with Burma, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh detached. Pre-British rule, India did not exist as a nation - understandably so, given that India includes a real mish-mash of distinct languages within its boundaries. India is a British creation, just as today's China was a Manchu creation. ** And unlike Macao and Hong Kong, which had been part of the Chinese empire before they were ceded to Portugal and Great Britain, Goa was never part of the British empire in South Asia - it was seized by the Portuguese from the Turkish Ottoman rulers, many centuries ago, before the British colonized the South Asian subcontinent. And yet the Indians seized Goa on the basis of incredibly dubious territorial claims. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-1-21 10:02:30 AM |
| #3 I had read something awhile ago that suprised me - India has one of the most consistantly anti-American voting records in the UN. Given the UN is beyond useless so votes there count for nothing, I was still shocked by it. |
| Posted by: JerseyMike 2004-1-21 7:47:15 AM |
| #2 Val, I tend to agree with you but still think India is a natural ally in the WOT and worth cultivating. Just have to get them past all that socialism nonsense. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-1-21 5:53:55 AM |
| #1 One word here...UGH. I trust the Indian government as far as I can throw it..no sorry...even less than that. Heck I'm Indian and even I'm admitting that. While theres a lot of reasons to have India on friendly terms, they aren't exactly fully on our side. |
| Posted by: Val 2004-1-21 5:06:29 AM |