Next test for US-India ties: Seat at high table for New Delhi

[Deletedid1]

WASHINGTON: A seat at the UN high table to reflect India's growing stature, the security situation in AfPak and regional stability, and cooperation on a raft of bilateral and global issues are being discussed as the United States and India kicked off their first ever strategic dialogue on a warm, steamy morning here.

India’s External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton buckled down for talks with their respective delegations in an effort to upgrade ties that seemed to have plateaued despite their five other previous engagements and at least three meetings between President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In remarks ahead of the talks at the US State Department, Clinton, perhaps anticipating New Delhi’s pitch for US support for a UNSC bid, said suo motu that "India’s rise will be a factor in any future consideration of reform of the Security Council," indicating some forward thinking on the subject.

The UNSC issue is quickly turning out to be the bellwether for US’ professed goal of helping India’s global rise.

President Obama is to drive down to the State Department later in the day to deliver closing remarks at a post-dialogue reception Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is hosting for External Affairs Minister to underscore his reinvigorated commitment to building deep and lasting ties with India even as Washington is losing traction with other allies and friends.

Obama is expected to visit India in the second week of November, an event that has now been penciled into the diplomatic calendars in both countries, and for which the strategic dialogue appears to be a stage-setter.
Although the visit is still five months away, both sides want to iron out wrinkles and ramp up ties at a time U.S relationship with China is turning sour.

On Wednesday, China scrubbed a proposed visit later this week by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a sign of continued friction in relations between the two sides over American arms sales to Taiwan and disagreement over the Korean spat.

Although none of these developments presage an immediate fundamental change in U.S priorities, there is a general recognition in Washington now that ties with China and India will be the two most important challenges in the 21st century. President Obama has said India is going to be one of the indispensable partners of the United States in the 21st century and US officials think it's very much in Washington own strategic interests “to help advance the growth of India on the world stage.”

Against this backdrop, India has begun pressing for active US support for its bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat even as the General Assembly has begun text-based negotiations on reforming the body. Krishna is expected to raise the issue with Hillary Clinton, who will brief Obama at the Oval Office about her talks before returning for the reception.

It is being suggested from the Indian side that the time has come for Washington to go beyond platitudes, and an explicit gesture of US support ahead of President Obama’s New Delhi visit will electrify ties in the same way as President Bush energized it with the big-ticket nuclear deal.

The two sides will also tackle a host of prickly matters on which they don’t exactly see eye-to-eye, including Iran and broader trade issues, although none of them have assumed crisis proportions. The Obama Administration -- and more so trade bodies such as the US-India Business Council -- is a tad impatient that the UPA government has been sluggish on getting the nuclear liability bill through Parliament after sealing the US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement. The political stand-off in New Delhi over the bill is stopping American companies from capitalizing on business from India after they pulled their weight in getting the bill through US Congress.

On Wednesday evening, Obama, still deeply troubled by the BP oil spill, spent a rare relaxed moment listening to the Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and other entertainers performing in the White House East Room. But not even a star-cast of Sir Paul, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and Faith Hill, among others, kept a score of Washington mandarins, including three former National Security Advisers, from attending a reception for Krishna hosted by Ambassador Meera Shankar around the same time.

Earlier in the day, Krishna, staying at the Four Seasons close to his old digs (he was a Fulbright scholar at the nearby George Washington Law School in the 60s) drove to the U.S Chamber of Commerce to tell American businesses that the time had come for the two countries “to set our sights on new milestones.”

Krishna also said India was committed to getting the Nuclear Liability Bill passed in Parliament, speaking to one of Washington’s major concerns. "We are well within the agreed timelines, of course. The Government is committed to put in place a nuclear liability regime. We look forward to US companies investing in India,” he told a meeting of the U.S-India Business Council.

But it is Obama’s remarks at the evening reception that is being awaited for signs of how far he will reach out to India to offset the impression that it has not been a priority for him, a reading that is disputed by US officials.

Krishna, who is of older vintage than Hillary Clinton or Obama, will remind the gathering that the latter is first US President of some Asian heritage and also invoke the President’s mother’s work in microfinance in Asia.