|
'Strategic ties with India
should be US foreign policy priority'
By
Arun Kumar
Indo-Asian
News Service
Washington,
Oct 30 (IANS) Citing the India-US civil nuclear deal as a
milestone, a senior American diplomat has put building close
strategic partnerships with emerging nations like India and
Brazil as key priorities for the next president.
With
the United States increasingly moving into a multidimensional
world with more centres of power than in previous decades,
different powers present different sets of challenges and
opportunities, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte
said in ramarks released by the State Department Wednesday.
"But
as a general matter, the United States welcomes the rise of
strong, capable partners willing to assume their fair share
of responsibility as stakeholders in the international system,"
America's third top diplomat said in recent remarks at the
Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs.
"We
are particularly eager to build close strategic partnerships
with large pluralistic democracies like Brazil and India,"
he said focusing "on several foreign policy priorities
that will likely, and in my view, should remain important
issues for the next president, whomever that may be."
"Earlier
this month, we achieved a milestone in our relationship with
India when President Bush signed the Civil Nuclear Cooperation
Agreement into law," Negroponte said. "This agreement
culminates eight years of steady progress, strengthening the
natural bonds between our two countries."
Such
partnerships with fellow democracies are a platform for projecting
influence and for cooperating on the full panorama of common
interests including long-term challenges of international
governance, such as free trade and climate change, he said.
"We
cannot reach effective solutions to such challenges without
consensus among both developed and developing major economies,
especially India and China," Negroponte said.
"Building
that consensus has not been easy," he said noting, "the
Indians and the Chinese are understandably concerned about
sustaining economic growth, and shielding their populations
and industries from the dislocations of global trade."
"Indeed,
many Americans have similar concerns," Negroponte said.
But
as major stakeholders in the international system, especially
in the global trading system from which they, as much as anyone,
are benefiting, India and China, he said should join US in
leading the way towards a successful conclusion of the Doha
trade round and the post-Kyoto framework on climate change.
Turning
to the war on terror, the senior US official said: "United
States and our allies face near-term challenges from Pakistan's
reluctance and inability to roll back terrorist sanctuaries
in the tribal region."
One
of the main challenges to a stable Afghanistan, and more broadly,
to defeating global terrorism is the trajectory of Pakistan."
"Pakistan
is a vitally important nation," Negroponte said noting
it is the world's third most populous Muslim state, a nuclear
power and "situated in the strategically crucial neighbourhood
of India, Iran, Afghanistan and China, and it is a frontline
state in the war on terrorism."
The
US, Negroponte said must balance the need to address those
challenges with its "longer-run interest in partnering
with Pakistan's moderate, civilian leaders to build an effective
democratic state capable of co-opting or defeating its internal
adversaries."
"This
objective requires supporting Pakistan's democratic institutions
and civil society groups that have their own interests in
taking on violent extremism," he said.
"It
requires a long-term partnership with the Pakistani Government
in a broad effort to promote the key elements necessary to
Pakistan's long-term stability."
These
elements included security, education, economic opportunity,
good governance, and rule of law, especially in the tribal
regions where the absence of adequate security forces and
governance enable terrorists to find sanctuary, Negroponte
said.
Prabuddha
Bharata>>>
Vedanta
Kesari>>>
Vedanta
Mass Media>>>
|
