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India gets top slot in Bush foreign policy review

India is being accorded a special pride of place in the Bush administration's foreign policy review, which is expected to be completed shortly, a senior US official has disclosed.

Mark Grossman, undersecretary of state for political affairs in the state department, said the framework that would guide the review for starters would "regard India as a major player on the world stage".

Grossman said, "That's why Secretary [of State Colin] Powell met with Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh on April 6, that's why President Bush invited Jaswant Singh to the Oval office during that same visit."

Addressing the 26th annual meeting of the US-India Business Council, Grossman also said, "That's why Deputy Secretary [of State Richard] Armitage flew from Seoul to New Delhi to brief the Indian government on our new strategic framework, that's why the president, Secretary Powell, Secretary [of Defence Donald] Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser [Condoleezza] Rice have all accepted invitations to visit India."

And that's why "I recently held a round of 'foreign office consultations' with Foreign Secretary [Chokila] Iyer, trading views on regional and global issues in the same fashion we do with other major players such as Japan, South Korea, China, Brazil, Australia, and our major European partners."

"Second," Grossman noted, "we see enormous potential for our bilateral relationship. Our bilateral trade is growing rapidly, but from a low level. We are, of course, at different stages of development and will not always see eye to eye on every project or every policy."

But, he vowed, "we intend to be aggressive in seeking areas in which we can co-operate, while identifying our differences clearly and trying to narrow them through frank but friendly discussions".

Another pillar of this framework, according to Grossman, was that Washington's "relationship with India is not contingent on that with any other country. The US can have relations in Asia that are win-win, not a zero-sum game."

Thus, he asserted that "we intend to expand, intensify and improve our relations with India for a host of good reasons. We want to do the same with others in the region."

Meanwhile, Grossman acknowledged that "we must remain concerned about arms control issues in South Asia.

"We welcome India's key commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing. We want to continue discussing with India our perceptions of the security situation in South Asia."

Thus, Grossman said, "We will continue to address with India our concerns about nuclear and missile developments in the region, and will expect to hear theirs as well."

He said the permeating thread in the foreign policy review would be to have "enhanced cooperation with India to create confidence and greater transparency, enabling the US to be more effective in helping reduce the risks of conflict or an arms race in the region."

"We believe that an overall approach of expanded engagement has the potential to achieve more than one based largely on habits of the past," he said.

"India is a great civilization. Great challenges still lie ahead, but India is now on a path that will help make it among the leading nations of the world."

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