PM's prediction on Indo-US ties prophetic: Sen

Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen has said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's prediction to President George W Bush at their first meeting that 'the best was yet to come' in Indo-US relations 'were prophetic', but that even he could not have imagined it to have fostered to the extent it has.

Sen, who will be leaving Washington, DC at the end of March, speaking at the annual luncheon meeting of the board of directors and the council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center, recalled that 'at his first meeting with President Bush in September 2004, during the UN General Assembly session, Prime Minister Mamohan Singh had remarked that the (Indo-US) relationship was better than ever before, but the best was yet to come.'

"These words were indeed prophetic," he said, adding, "However, even those present at that meeting, including myself, could not have predicted the sharp and sustained upward trajectory of growth of all facets of our relationship thereafter."

Sen trotted out a laundry list of achievements between the two countries since those 'prophetic' remarks of Dr Singh, starting with the tsunami in December 2004, when 'the Indian and US navies cooperated in search, rescue and rehabilitation efforts in the Indian Ocean. Subsequently, an India-US initiative for cooperation in natural disaster management was launched.

This he said was followed by 'an Open Skies agreement' in April 2005 that has 'resulted in a rapid increase in the number of flights connecting India and the United States.'

'In June 2005, a new Framework of US-India Defense Relationship was concluded between the defense ministers of the two countries. The NSSP (New Steps in Strategic Partnership) process was concluded by the time of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official visit to the United States in July 2005,' he added.

Sen then went on to list the initiatives and agreements that were launched during the visit, 'including the truly historic initiative to shed the baggage of the past and usher in a new era of civil nuclear energy cooperation between India and the United States.'

"The remarkable progress of such multifaceted cooperation was manifested during the highly successful visit of President Bush to India in March 2006," he said.

Sen acknowledged that 'the United States is, and will probably long remain, the pre-eminent global power, in terms of its economic strength, scientific and technological prowess, innovative ability and military might.'

But he argued that it was only a question of time before India, which is not only the largest democracy but one of the world's fastest growing economies, would 'regain its position as one of the three largest economies in the world.'

Sen declared that 'India is a bastion of democracy in the world's most diverse neighborhood; it is an anchor of stability in a highly volatile region; and increasingly a locomotive of stable and sustainable regional economic growth.'

He also said that India has 'historically been, and remains, a benign status quo power without any expansionist desire,' and said that the only power it has projected has been 'soft power.'

"India's growth is also not disruptive or destabilizing," the envoy said, and noted that "it is propelled not by exports but by a domestic demand and investments in one of the fastest growing consumer markets in the world."

He agreed that India is faced with immense challenges, but argued that "all these challenges are also opportunities --whether it is meeting the need for infrastructure or addressing energy deficiency, or modernization of the manufacturing sector."

Thus, according to Sen, 'the opportunities for partnership with India are huge,' and said that 'as with any healthy partnership, we believe it will be sustainable because it will be of mutual benefit to us and our partners.'

He pointed out that Indo-US bilateral trade had grown exponentially from $13.5 billion in 2001 to around $40 billion in 2007, and noted that 'though the balance of merchandize trade is in India's favor, US exports to India are growing much faster than our exports to the US.'

The ambassador said that the civilian nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington was 'the most outstanding symbol of the new relationship between the two countries as well as of India's new standing in the world,' and asserted that 'there are few issues on which there is complete agreement between the United States, Russia, European and other countries. Civil nuclear cooperation with India is one such issue.'

Sen said that 'it is a fact that cooperation in areas like that of nuclear energy, defense and space can only be based on mutual confidence and trust and a shared long-term strategic vision.'

He said he believed that India and the US "can rightly be called strategic partners and we can reconcile our ideals and interests and do not have to sacrifice principles at the altar of experiency. As democracies, we have had, and will continue to have, differences on some issues."

Sen also ruled out the India and the US ever becoming allies, 'in the traditional military sense', but said, "however, we cherish the same values of democracy, rule of law and respect for diversity."

He said, "India is adjacent to the world's largest concentration of terrorists, and the India-US Working Group on Counter-Terrorism was active long before 9/11."

Sen also said that "India is also adjacent to the world's largest origins and destinations of proliferation of nuclear weapons and delivery systems," and acknowledged that "the worst-case national security nightmare for both our countries is nuclear terrorism."

"The relationship between our two countries also has another special dimension of people-to-people contacts provided by the vibrant Indian American community," he said, and spoke of how the 2.5 million strong community "is highly educated, innovative, entrepreneurial, and increasingly politically active."

Consequently, Sen said that the community "is emerging as a major factor for stronger bilateral ties."