With US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in India to deepen the strategic partnership with it, a leading American daily today said it is time for her to address some of the issues, including pending defence agreements, with New Delhi.
In a lead editorial, The Boston Globe said, "India presents both the most promising and the most challenging test case for cooperative relations with the emerging powers of the 21st century."
The US-India nuclear deal negotiated by the Bush administration has provoked anxieties in some quarters about a dangerous precedent for nuclear proliferation, but the deal has indisputably cleared the way for a closer relationship between Washington and New Delhi, the newspaper said.
Now that the nuclear accord is a done deal and the Congress party has come back to power with bigger margin, it said, Clinton can address other outstanding issues in US-Indian relations.
"These include pending defence agreements between the two nations' militaries, cooperation in the fight against terrorism, more educational exchanges, more US visas for Indians with advanced skills, and, perhaps most important of all, a meeting of minds on the need for coordinated actions to reduce the danger of catastrophic climate change," the daily said.
The newspaper said when it comes to regional issues, Clinton should make the case that the expanding US-Indian relationship gives Indian leaders more strategic flexibility.
It urged Clinton to convince New Delhi to stop trying to match their Chinese counterparts in backing regimes such as those in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, which according to the paper have committed human rights abuses against their own people.
"If a shared respect for democratic values forms the foundation for the burgeoning US-India partnership, Indian leaders should be able to heed any such counsel from Clinton. She could tell her Indian interlocutors that friends don't let friends become the enablers of abusive neighbours," it said.