India 'downgraded' in US' strategic calculations: Blackwill

[LETHALFORCE]

India 'downgarded' in US' strategic calculations: Blackwill- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times

India 'downgarded' in US' strategic calculations: Blackwill
5 May 2009, 1814 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: A "substantial" change in the US policy toward India was visible under the Obama Administration which appears to have put China on a
higher plane that its southern neighbour, former US Ambassador Robert Blackwill said on Tuesday.

With Obama administration devoting enormous thought to Pakistan, the former diplomat cautioned that India may encounter eventual US pressure on the issue of Kashmir.

Blackwill said he thought that the Obama administration wants genuinely good relations with India, but there can be a substantial change viz a viz the policies of the Bush administration and it would take "very hard work and skillful diplomacy" from both the governments to keep the US-India relationship on its current level.

While former US President George W Bush looked at India as an emerging democratic power as a key factor in balancing the rise of Chinese power, he said, "there are preliminary indications that the Obama administration has a different policy orientation towards India.

"First it is not clear that the Obama administration has the same preoccupation with the rise of Chinese power and India's balancing role in it.

"Rather, Washington is now naturally focused on US-China economic relations... so China today appears to me to be on a substantially higher plane in US diplomacy than India which seems to have been downgraded in the administration's strategic calculations," Blackwill, who was the US ambassador from 2001-2003, said at a CII gathering.

"It will take very hard work and skillful diplomacy from both the governments to keep the US-India relationship on its current plateau and avoid a steady decline in out bilateral ties," Blackwill said

Blackwill said, for every good reason the Obama administration is devoting enormous thought to Pakistan, since it is the most dangerous foreign policy problem that Washington presently faces.

"The possible effect of such an enveloping US preoccupation with Pakistan seems on its way in practical terms to re-hyphenating the US-India relationship, leading the administration to see India largely through the lens of deeply disturbing developments in Pakistan," he said.

"This will produce an understandable and growing US interest in trying to reduce tensions in India-Pakistan relationship, not least because Pakistan will argue that tensions with India and the Kashmir dispute are preventing it from moving robustly against the Islamic terrorists," he added.

The former US Ambassador said Afghanistan presents another set of potential differences between India and Pakistan. "For Washington to believe that India will not be a major player in the long-term future of Afghanistan is to ignore centuries of history, culture and mutual interaction between the two," he said.

He listed Iran as also another "knotty" issue in US-India relations and a potential source of considerable bilateral tension.


I hope this has no bearing on our MRCA pick

 

[Daredevil]

There is no loss to India by (if there is a) down-gradation of relationship by US as far as strategic goals of India is concerned. India has followed an independent foreign policy for a long time and will do so in the future without depending on US. It will be the US which will be the loser in the long term both economically and strategically if it is not tilting towards India.

 

[Pintu]

That's right Dare Devil , and I am totally agree you on this point, we followed an Independent Foreign Policy and should follow that in future, irrespective of what the current US Administration thinks about us.

Regards

 

[LETHALFORCE]

There is no loss to India by (if there is a) down-gradation of relationship by US as far as strategic goals of India is concerned. India has followed an independent foreign policy for a long time and will do so in the future without depending on US. It will be the US which will be the loser in the long term both economically and strategically if it is not tilting towards India.

Atleast Obama has made his views clear so we know we can focus in other areas like Europe and Middle East, this article is for all the Obama lovers and Bush haters, Obama's policies will be failures internationally and domestically I don't see him doing much to improve US economy or win the two wars.

 

[Yusuf]

Any open tilt towards China will hurt the US more. The MRCA is but a small pie. The major thing is the nuke deal and a potential $150 Billion at stake, the one Bush worked very hard on to pass.
If Obama tries to be another Nixon, then its going to hurt him more.

 

[pyromaniac]

I don't mean to throw things out of context but in 1938-1939 chamberlain , the then British PM followed the same sort of appeasement with a country called Germany. That led to the largest and to date the most destructive warfare in the history of humanity. Certain countries don't like America, don't care much for things like value and western ideals, China is one of them. The so called "leader of the free world" has to wake up and smell the coffee..on one hand he goes on about protecting the ideals of democracy and blah blah blah..yet his stance on certain events do not reflect that. This is America's greatest weakness...it never has a overarching strategy to speak..it just wants quick term fixes for problems that are anything but small.

 

[Yusuf]

I dont think Obama is a fool. He is probably cozying up China so that China continues to buy the worthless treasury bonds. Once America tides over the economic mess its in right now and doesnt need Chinese money, it will be back to square one.