Soar above F-16s

The temptation will be strong in New Delhi to follow that default option and posture against the impending American F-16 sales to Islamabad. Resisting that itch, India should focus on what it wants from the US and the steps the two nations could take in promoting stability and prosperity in the neighbourhood and beyond.

For a change, India is in a position to be the one which makes the demands on the US. Most of those demands are indeed reasonable and in tune with American interests in the region. Take, for example, Pakistan. India is now engaged in a full-blown peace process with Islamabad constructed on the basis of trial and error in New Delhi rather than being imposed from outside.

The recent visit of Natwar Singh to Pakistan which laid the basis for the first-ever bus service across the Line of Control in J&K has marked a high point in Indo-Pak relations in recent years. India has huge stakes in the stability of Pakistan and Afghanistan and wants their economic modernisation.

The US says it shares these objectives. It is up to India now press Rice to back New Delhi’s attempts to promote economic integration with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Is Rice ready to support India’s demand for a transport corridor linking the three nations?

For the first time in decades India is dealing with the fundamentals of the relations with Pakistan-resolution of the Kashmir question and the normalisation of bilateral relations. In this fragile but promising peace process, India’s challenge does not lie in the nature of the military balance with Pakistan. Thanks to the nuclear equation in South Asia, acquisition of a few conventional weapons systems by either side no longer affects the military balance between India and Pakistan.

Where India needs American support is in cleansing Pakistan of the sources of terrorism and removal of infrastructure built over the years to export jihad. India would also want the US to nudge Pakistan into being more pragmatic on trade and economic cooperation with India.

On China, where the US appears to radically recasting its approach to Beijing, New Delhi must emphasise its commitment to resolve bilateral political disputes and expand economic relations with its northern neighbour. Amidst the simultaneous rise of India and China and the unshackling of Japan from the political constraints imposed on it at the end of the Second World War, the future of Asian power balance is today uppermost on the mind of US strategic planners.

New Delhi, too, wants a stable equilibrium in Asia. But a credible Asian balance demands that the US end its differential treatment of New Delhi and Beijing.

While the US underwrites the expansion of civil nuclear energy development in China, it today neither sells nuclear reactors to India nor does it let others like France and Russia do so. Is Rice willing to reconsider the anomalous situation in its nuclear policy towards India and China?

If the US is serious about drawing India deeper into Asian politics, it should also be backing Indian entry into the APEC. It should also be promoting stronger ties between New Delhi and Tokyo.

In the Middle East, which is at the top of Bush priorities, it is about time India put on the table what it would like to do in helping the Iraqis build a new nation. Ending the Indian policy paralysis on Iraq would open the door for a constructive engagement with the US in the short term and the Iraqi people over the longer term.

New Delhi has every reason to be pleased with the new progress in the Middle East peace process. Here again it is up to India to come up with new ideas on how it can strengthen the new Palestinian leadership and promote peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Arabs.

If India clearly defines its own long-term interests in a positive manner, the Rice visit could become the occasion to consolidate the gains in Indo-US relations in recent years and frame a productive agenda for the next four.

Questions for Condoleezza