The US has asked India to flex its political muscle and play a dominant and assertive role in Asia and across the Asia-Pacific.
“This is not the time when any one of us can afford to look inward at the expense of looking forward. This is a time to seize the opportunities of the 21st century,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her visit to India last fortnight.
“It’s time to lead,” she said, reminding the Manmohan Singh Government that it can also step up the pace for an economic integration with neighbours and build a leadership role in Asia-Pacific.
Ms Clinton suggested that India could use its thriving $US1.6 trillion economy to reach its fragile neighbours, notably Afghanistan and Pakistan.
She said India and the US had “aligning interests and values” on issues such as maritime security, democracy and human rights – areas where there have been clashes with China.
In her quoted remarks, she said, “Because India shares these values and interests, expanding our cooperation can produce benefits for each of us.”
Constructive relationship
Both countries, she said, could still have a “strong constructive relationship with Beijing, though this will not always be easy.”
Ms Clinton’s visit came hardly a week after a July 13 serial blasts in Mumbai.
Her talks with India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna focused on counter- terror cooperation.
“We are deepening and expanding our efforts and making great strides together on behalf of counter terrorism but also in respect of maritime security,” she said, addressing a media conference in New Delhi.
Bilateral trade came up briefly during the talks. Indo-US bilateral is now valued at $US50 billion. India is the 12th largest trading partner with the US.
The ticklish issue that figured in her talks with Indian leaders related to civil nuclear energy. India and the US signed a landmark energy deal in 2008. The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima in Japan after the deadly tsunami in March has seen some cautious steps in the Nuclear Safety Bill.
US firms see India’s new Nuclear Liability Law as “too tough” on nuclear plant suppliers which, they feel, makes them hard to compete with state-owned French and Russian companies.
Under the Nuclear Liability Bill, a nuclear plant operator can go to court in the event of an accident, if negligence is the cause.
The US firms believe that huge sums could be involved in court proceedings. While the Russians see this as a deterrent, the French have sought greater clarity.
“We are looking for India to rectify the compensation regime for nuclear accidents by the end of the year. The liability regime should fully conform to international convention,” Ms Clinton said.
Ms Clinton was on a three-day visit to India, during which she attended the Second Indo-US Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi and then flew to Chennai, her first to the southern city, where she spelt out the American perspective and vision for India to emerge as a strategic player.
She has been a regulator visitor since 1990s – as the First Lady, Senator and now as a top official in the Barack Obama Administration.
Enchanting Chennai
She said the Chennai culture was ‘mesmerising,’ watching the intricate steps of Bharata Natyam and (Kerala’s) Kathakali. She visited a number of welfare organisations and held an official meeting with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Supremo Jayalaitha Jayaram.
Ms Jayaram, who returned to power with a massive majority in the recently held Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, was a popular actress (in the 1960s) in the South Indian film industry in general and Tamil in particular.
But her reel life began with Epistle, an English movie, followed by Chinnada Gombe in Kannada in the early 1960s. However, it was her role as a young widow in Vennira Aaadi (a 1965 Tamil film) that caught the attention of Tamil matinee idol M G Ramachandran who later formed the AIADMK and became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Following his death in December 1987, she seized the opportunity to lead her Party and the State.
NVR Swami is a veteran journalist and a former reporter for the Press Trust of India. He lives in Auckland.
