‘Obama should look beyond trade with India and recognise its global role’

“While these are indeed important issues,President Obama must also emphasise the broader significance of the US-India strategic partnership in strengthening democratic forces and balancing China’s rise in East Asia,” said Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation.

Curtis said Obama has often adopted an overly simplistic approach toward US-India trade and economic ties,focusing on India as an economic competitor to the US.

“While clamping down on outsourcing,President Obama has missed the larger story on the benefits to the US economy from increased investment and trade ties between the two countries,” she said,referring to the investments being done by Indian companies in the US.

“The President’s historic visit to India offers an opportunity to set a new course for the direction of the US-India partnership — one that acknowledges India’s growing global role and the changing Asian strategic landscape that makes strong US-Indian partnership imperative for stability and prosperity in the region,” she said.

Curtis said Obama Administration’s South Asia policy has focused a tremendous amount of attention on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

India,being the stable and prosperous country in the region,has posed much less of a headache for the White House and thus tended to receive less attention.

“The Obama Administration also squandered some goodwill with the Indians early in its tenure by raising the specter of the appointment of a Kashmir envoy to placate Pakistan.

President Obama has since demonstrated a keener understanding of Indian sensitivities on the issue and is more realistic about the limits of any US role in the decades-old dispute,” Curtis noted.

Once in India,Curtis said Obama will face tough questions on the counter-terrorism front,especially on American handling of Mumbai terror suspect David Headley case.

The US has committed to reviewing its intelligence files on Headley and to debriefing India with full details on the review to reduce tensions over the case.

“The Headley review will be useful not only to address Indian concerns but also to tighten US procedures in dealing with information related to Pakistan-based terrorist groups that are linked to international terrorism. US policymakers have mistakenly tended to view India-focused terrorist groups like LeT through a different lens than al-Qaeda,despite a plethora of information showing the groups are interlinked and often cooperate on terrorist plots,” she said.

As part of the growing security relationship,the Obama Administration is likely to unveil new measures to relax export controls on India,a gesture that would demonstrate the US sees India as a partner,not a target,in countering global proliferation,” Curtis said.

“Another initiative President Obama should consider is incorporating India into the major nonproliferation groupings such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group,Missile Technology Control Regime,Australia Group,and Wassenar,” she said.

“India’s membership in these groupings would serve to strengthen the global nonproliferation order. The major challenge in bringing India into these organizations is its status outside the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT).

From a practical perspective,India’s inclusion in the groups would strengthen their ability to achieve the intended purpose of limiting the spread of nuclear,biological,chemical,sensitive missile,and other military technologies,” she said.

India must also do its part to facilitate growing security ties,Curtis argued.

“To move the defense relationship forward,India must be prepared to sign defense cooperation agreements,like the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) and Logistics Support Agreement (LSA),” she said.

“These agreements will increase interoperability with US systems and enhance logistical cooperation. India must also commit to upgrading its export control system,which will strengthen its case for becoming a full-fledged member of the multilateral nonproliferation groupings,” Curtis said.

“India’s signing of the international Convention on Supplemental Compensation (CSC) last week was a positive step in beginning to close the gap between Washington and New Delhi on the nuclear liability issue that has cast a pall over the civil nuclear deal,” she said.