Indo-US Strategic Partnership: Are We There Yet?
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NO 39 IPCS ISSUE BRIEF OCTOBER 2006 Indo-US strategic partnership: Are we there yet? Lalit Mansingh Ambassador Mansingh is currently an Executive Committee Member, IPCS. He was earlier India’s Foreign Secretary and Indian Ambassador to the US. This paper was originally delivered as a keynote The Indo-US relationship, according to Strobe address at the Army War College, Mhow on 25 Talbott was “a victim of incompatible obsessions- September 2006. India with Pakistan and America’s with the Soviet Union.” Both were Guilty of being on best terms “Americans always do the right thing,” said with “each other’s principal enemy”. 2 Winston Churchill, “after they have tried everything else”. In the contest of India, it took Efforts at improving relations during the cold war the Americans five decades to do the right thing. There were nevertheless brief periods of warmth These were the five decades of the Cold War, and understanding, even attempts at forging described by the late Senator Moynihan, a strategic ties. At least three of these are worth former American Ambassador to India, as a “half nothing. In 1962, following the Chinese aggression century of misunderstandings, miscues, and on India, there was a clear convergence of mishaps. “Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant strategic interests between India and the US. Singh called them “the fifty wasted years”. Setting non-Alignment aside, Pandit Nehru sought India’s strategic1 irrelevance to the United States urgent military support from the United States, including two dozen squadrons of B-47 bombers, a Even though they shared common values, India dozen squadrons of fighter aircraft and air and the United States had divergent views on defence radars. The US responded with sympathy, their respective roles in the world. The US saw itself but the military assistance offered was symbolic as the leader of the Free World, fighting a rather than substantive. The US administration was crusade against the evil forces of international divided on India, with the Pentagon warning communism. India had no such phobia against against a dilution of its strong ties with Pakistan. communism and preferred to remain non- India continued to be strategically irrelevant to the Aligned. An enduring image of the Cold War, in US. Indian minds, is that of John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State. Issuing a fatwa There were two other short periods of political against non- Alignment, Dulles pronounced it cooperation-in the mid-80s and the early 90s, immoral and declared it incompatible with when Indian and the US set aside their frictions to friendship with the United States. discuss technology transfer and military cooperation. The MOU on transfer of Technology Dulles was reflecting what the US Joint Chief of of 1985and the Kicklighter proposals of 1991, which Staff had concluded-that India was strategically outlined “a common strategic vision”, paved the irrelevant for the United States. Their ally of choice way for the Agreed minute of defence in the region was Pakistan. As Dulles pursued his cooperation signed during US Defence Secretary, ‘Pactomania’ and got Pakistan admitted to William Perry’s visit to India in 1995. The failure of CENTO and SEATO, the political distance such sporadic attempts to take bilateral relations between Delhi and Washington continued to to the higher plane suggests that they were still grow. ahead of their time. INDO-US STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: ARE WE THERE YET? PAGE 2 The Clinton years a breakthrough The US offered India a grand bargain under which it would withdraw its nuclear and technology Former Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott’s sanctions provided India met four benchmarks: book, “engaging India”, provides a fascination account of the process by which the US approach • Sign the CTBT towards India evolved from estrangement to • Negotiate a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty engagement. Talbott writes that India was (FMCT) cropping up frequently in Clinton’s conversations in the very first year of his presidency and the • Enforce world class export controls on nuclear Clinton regarded India a potentially important and missile and technology and power for the US. It indeed Clinton felt that way, Delhi did not see much evidence of it. India felt • Observe a non-threatening defence posture. the heat of Clinton’s zeal in pursuing nuclear non- Although India had no serious problems with any proliferation. The move to indefinitely extend the of these requirements, the dialogue remained Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was the last stuck on the benchmarks like a broken record and straw for India. In Talbott’s words, the NPT eventually ended in deadlock. Talbott conceded represented for Indians “the three Ds of US nuclear with some disappointment the Jaswant Singh policies: dominance, discrimination and double managed to achieve his objectives whereas his standards”. own targets remained unfulfilled. On the Kashmir issue, Washington continued to tilt Failure for Clinton; success for bush towards Pakistan Clinton’s newly appointed Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Robin It is important to understand why the Clinton Raphel, even questioned the legality of Jammu Administration’s bold departure on India ended in and Kashmir’s accession to India. Charges of self-confessed failure, and how George W. Bush, human rights abuses against India were getting starting from where Clinton had left, converted more strident. There was skepticism in India when the same policy into a spectacular success. Under Secretary of State; Tom Pickering offered a There are three major reasons that explain why strategic dialogue with India, which he said, would Clinton did not eventually succeed with India. cover the “whole gamut of relations”. Firstly, in Clinton economics-driven global vision, And then, India’s nuclear tests in May 1998, made China was a much bigger prize to be pursued such a dialogue irrelevant. Washington reacted than India. Clinton even sought to bring China into by slapping punitive sanctions and took the lead the South Asian equation, by suggesting that in condemning India from the forums of the UN China could join the US to enforce peace in the Security Council and the G-8. region. India found this insensitive and deeply offensive. Secondly, the insistence on benchmarks From India’s nuclear defiance, ironically, made India resentful that the US Continued to emerged the most intense, the most serious and treat it as a global delinquent. The benchmarks the most extended set of exchanges between the were seen as a penalty India had to pay in order two counties. I am referring to the Jaswant Singh- to free itself from US sanctions. India felt no moral Strobe Talbott dialogue, which took place over or legal obligation to pay such a price. And finally, two years in fourteen sessions in seven countries. what Clinton was offering to India was America’s The dialogue helped to clear much of the debris friendship, not a partnership on equal terms- and of past misunderstandings and made Washington that too with a price tag. India was prepared to aware of India’s national and global aspirations wait and see what his successor had to offer. and its rationale for the nuclear tests. In Talbott’s On the face of it, there was a seamless continuity words, “India had put on notice that it was now of US policy towards India under George W. Bush unambiguously, unapologetically and irrevocably, in 2001. In fact, it appeared to be the only a nuclear armed power.”3 It was this realization segment of Clinton’s foreign policy that Bush did which forced the Clinton administration to not repudiate and demolish. Beneath the surface abandon its declared goal to “Cap, Rollback and however, there was an important change of Eliminate” India’s nuclear programme. approach. NO 39 PAGE 3 Firstly, Bush did not perceive India as a lesser prize Manmohan Singh to Washington in July 2005 and than China. Influenced no doubt by the Neo- of George W. Bush to Delhi in March 2006. Cons, Bush and his team considered India a Condoleeza Rice brought with her an outline of counterweight and not a lightweight, against the second Bush administration’s Grand Strategy China. for India. The US, she told the Indian Prime Minister, Secondly, India was no longer regarded to be in was willing to help India became a major power in the dock and there was no penalty to be paid for the 21st century. And as a first step, the US would alleged misdeeds. India was seen as entitled to its reverse three decades of its oppositions to India’s rightful place in the world order. Condoleeza Rice nuclear programme and make civilian nuclear proclaimed that the United States would facilitate cooperation the centerpiece of the new India’s quest for global status. Finally, Bush was relationship. While India responded favourably, it offering more than a hand of friendship: he was took time for the full impact of the American offer keen to make India a strategic partner of the to sink in. No one understood better than Dr. United States. This was truly a new beginning. Manmohan Singh that this was a historic opportunity for India to shed the burdens of the Defining the contours of the strategic partnership, past and strike a new path to the future. the US National Security Strategy, 2002, declared that “the United States had undertaken a India formally accepted the American offer transformation of its bilateral relationship with India during the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington in based on a conviction that US interests require a July 2005. The agreement announced on 18th July strong relationship with India.” The document that year was more or less on India’s terms.