Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Long Live The British Empire
I find it equally remarkable that India is evolving into one of our most important friends, and I hope that the US and India will ultimately develop into equally durable and reliable partners. Read today's WSJ ($) piece by William Cohen, President Clinton's former Secretary of Defense, to get a feel for the significance of President Bush's recent India initiative. The following concluding summary is good, but I urge you to read the whole thing:
In reality, India is in fact an increasingly important partner to the U.S. and European efforts aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear weapons development program. Delhi and Washington share the problems posed by global extremist terrorism and coordinate ever more closely on a full range of related intelligence matters. India's voice and assistance in the international community helping to ensure that Afghanistan and Iraq are successes is increasingly important. Perhaps, however, our greatest long-term confluence of strategic interest is shaping the positive emergence of China as a global power. To all of these ends, India has great ambitions of joining the U.N. Security Council as a permanent member and assuming even greater global responsibility.
Fundamentally upgrading the U.S.-India relationship represents one of the most important strategic innovations in American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. Congress should recognize and consider carefully this reality during its deliberations on the civilian nuclear agreement. It is time for two great countries to set aside historical misunderstandings, resolve differences, and move forward with a mutual commitment in promoting democracy, advancing freedom, maintaining security, and establishing free and open markets. India and the United States are embarking on an important and historic journey for the future. Close strategic cooperation and defense security ties between the two countries will be an important element in determining the success or failure of that journey in an ever more complicated and dangerous world.
3 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Apr 05, 12:30:00 PM:
Yes, we certainly agree with the importance of the new U.S.-India relationship. Its importance in balancing Chinese power is clear enough.
Perhaps equally important is that it improves the U.S. position in case civil order collapses inside Pakistan. When that occurs, leaving Pakistan's nuclear weapons stockpile adrift, the U.S. will be glad that it tilted decisively to India; U.S. freedom of action to deal with that crisis will as a result be greatly expanded.
Please see our post,
Writing off Pakistan.
Westhawk
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Wed Apr 05, 02:05:00 PM:
If the link was broken, I think it's fixed, but keep in mind the WSJ is a subscription site.
By , at
Thu Apr 06, 03:03:00 PM:
A close alliance between the US and India is long overdue. They are two of the world's biggest democracies. I suppose the delay was caused the the superstitious dread many Americans have of "Socialism". But Indian socialism, like British socialism, is of the mild London School of Economics variety, and not at all like totalitarian Marxism.
