rediff.com: An exclusive interview with Naresh Chandra, India's ambassador to the United States

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While External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott held as many as ten rounds of talks before the Clinton visit, Ambassador Naresh Chandra, Deputy Chief of Mission T P Sreenivasan and other members of their staff at the Indian embassy played the diplomacy game day after day in Washington DC these last many months, tirelessly trying to make the Americans see and understand their point of view.

While the Pakistani envoys -- first Riaz Khokkar, the former high commissioner to India, then former editor Mallika Lodhi who returned to the US capital for a second stint at her embassy -- produced a high decibel campaign, full of colourful rhetoric, the Indian case was made with the understatement that is the hallmark of our civil and foreign services. Even though many Indian Americans were critical of the embassy's pitch, Naresh Chandra and his colleagues appear to have won this round and set the often turbulent Indo-US relationship on a new road.

In this segment of the hour-long interview with rediff.com editor Nikhil Lakshman, which we carry in three parts in Real Audio, Naresh Chandra answers charges that India went along with the US initiative to end the war in Kargil and that New Delhi has cut a deal with Washington over Kashmir.

Part I:'We have buried the hangover of the Cold War'

Was Kargil a turning point in India's discussions with the US establishment?
The ambassador's response

But we also played along with the Americans, didn't we?
The ambassador's response

Is it true that while President Clinton was taking to Nawaz Sharief, he was also talking to the Indian prime minister to help Sharief find a face-saving way out of the Kargil mess?
The ambassador's response

Some sceptics believe that Indo-US diplomacy is not as straightforward as it appears. They suspect a deal has been cut by Delhi on Kashmir and the nuclear issue.
The ambassador's response

Isn't it true on Kashmir, for instance, that the US pressurised us to release the Hurriyat leaders and hold talks with them?
The ambassador's response

What about the nuclear issue? Are we closer to signing the CTBT?
The ambassador's response

Have we indicated to them or guaranteed that we will not conduct any more tests? Has that been a factor in our newly forged relationship with the US?
The ambassador's response

Do you think the US is concerned that Pakistan might indulge in proliferation?
The ambassador's response

Part I of the Interview | Part III of the Interview

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