Obama seeks stronger ties with India By _John Pomfret_ (http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?s.sm.query=John+Pomfret&camp=localsearch:on:byline:art)
Washington Post / November 25, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Obama yesterday welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Washington for the first state visit under the Obama administration, and moved to calm Indian concerns that the United States is neglecting the Asian power as it seeks closer ties with China and Pakistan, India’ s competitors. “In Asia, Indian leadership is expanding prosperity and the security across the region,’’ Obama said after a two-hour meeting with Singh at the White House. “And the United States welcomes and encourages India’s leadership role in helping to shape the rise of a stable, peaceful, and prosperous Asia.’’ Obama’s statement appeared crafted to assuage fears in the sometimes prickly nation that his administration is less committed than his predecessor’s to a strong relationship with New Delhi. In 2005, President George W. Bush signed a landmark deal committing the United States to cooperating with India in the development of its nuclear power industry, even though India had detonated a nuclear device in 1998 and declined to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Obama said that the United States will “fully implement’’ the 2005 nuclear accord and that the two countries will cooperate on a “clean-energy initiative.’’ The nuclear deal has been held up partly because it is still unclear how India will handle uranium provided to it by US nuclear firms. Indian officials and analysts had expressed concern that during his trip to East Asia last week, Obama failed to mention India in a speech about US policy in the region and appeared to endorse a peacemaking role of sorts for China in India’s relations with Pakistan. India views China as a competitor, and Beijing is a strong backer of Pakistan. The Washington Post recently reported that China not only gave Pakistan a blueprint for a nuclear device in the 1970s, it also provided key raw materials to build one. In statements over the past two days, Singh has joined Obama in emphasizing the values that India and the United States share and the importance of democracy in helping the two countries grow closer. In that, said C. Raja Mohan, a Washington-based columnist for the Indian Express newspaper, Singh is unique among Indian leaders. “In the past, it was all about post-colonial issues. But Singh has really taken us beyond that, ’’ he said. “It’s not just that we are poor, Third World, and the West is sitting on us. Singh is signaling that we have a comfort level with the United States that no one else has, and the US should see that.’’ In remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday night, Singh took a few not-so subtle swipes at China that sent titters through the crowd. He noted “a certain amount of assertiveness on the part of the Chinese’’ over longtime border disputes between the two countries and said that while China’s development has been faster than India’s, “I’ve always believed that there are other values which are more important than the growth of the gross domestic product.’’ Among them, he said, are “respect for fundamental human rights, the respect for the rule of law, the respect for multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious rights.’’ He also said he believed that policies pushed by a democracy would be “far more effective than reforms introduced by the writ of a ruling group in a non-democratic setup.’’ Administration officials have said it was no accident that India was chosen for a state visit. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called it “a show of respect for the value that we put on that relationship.’’ Obama also accepted an invitation to visit India next year.
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