Indo-US ties get a shot in the arm

George W Bush's victory in the US presidential elections ended weeks of ambivalence and Indian strategists predicted that strategic relations between India and the US would get a new push although New Delhi would be under renewed pressure to lower tariffs and open its markets further.

India would have to work doubly hard to make the US see India and Kashmir from a new perspective, said B Raman of the Institute of Topical Studies and formerly with the central government, because it would have to identify Indian interests that were compatible with US interests, and work for a convergence of views and policy-making and implementation.

According to Raman, the campaign against Jihadi terrorism; the importance of the restoration of normalcy in Iraq and the prevention of its balkanisation; and helping India catch up with China as an economic power of equal strength for which India would need a large flow of US investments and technology should be the priority areas for the Indian government to gain leverage with the Bush administration.

Former Ambassadors of India in Washington, Lalit Mansingh and Naresh Chandra said strategic ties would progress along known lines and would gather new momentum.

It is well known that the Democrats, specifically Strobe Talbott, had emphasised that India should not concentrate too much on strategic issues and nuclear theology with the US but should aim at developing new areas of co-operation and partnership.

He was referring to the New Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP), which is the one area where denial of technology, courteous but persistent, continues to dog the ties despite the spurt in the grant of licences for dual-use technology.

In an interview to India Abroad magazine in September, George Bush had committed his new administration to a pro-growth economic agenda and had hinted that bars to outsourcing would mean isolationism.

"I know that economic changes can cause painful dislocations for some workers and their families, and I am committed to help ease these transitions and assist workers in preparing for the global economy and the jobs of the future. Global trade is vital to the success of our economy and job creation.

"We need to continue to expand trade and work to open markets for American goods and services. Millions of high-paying American jobs depend on trade. American farmers who plant one in three acres for export depend on trade.

"And foreign-owned firms in the US employ over six million Americans," he had said, implying that while free trade was a two-way street, outsourcing actually helped in creating more jobs. Bush will now have to put his money where his mouth is.