It is no surprise that the US President George W. Bush has chosen to send his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to empathise with the Indian people after the terrorist aggression against Mumbai. Rice’s visit, however, has political significance that goes way beyond a mere expression of American solidarity. Rice is likely to set the tone for the global response to the Mumbai attacks. The internationalisation of the gathering India-Pakistan crisis was inevitable because of a number of factors. These include the specific targeting of Western visitors and a Jewish centre in Mumbai, the presence of nuclear weapons in South Asia, and the implications for the situation in Afghanistan, where the US and European troops are fighting a faltering war against terror.

Cynics would want to see Rice’s visit as an effort to discourage New Delhi from developing a muscular response to the Mumbai aggression. Over the last decade, in its many confrontations with Islamabad, New Delhi has dealt with Washington in an intensive manner. Whichever way one looks at it, the United States is India’s most important partner in mobilising international pressure on Pakistan to crack down on the well-known anti-India terror groups operating on its soil. India must offer Rice a strong commitment to fully share the evidence and results of its investigations into the Mumbai attack.

In the talks with Rice, India’s most important objective must be to end the many current restrictions on significant counter-terror bilateral cooperation with the US. Residual anti-Americanism in our security establishment has made it less than open; while the US system has been reluctant to engage India on the sources of terrorism inside Pakistan. Given its dependence on the Pakistan army for the war on terror in Afghanistan, Washington has been hesitant to exchange intelligence on terror groups based in Pakistan. From its own experience, Washington now knows that the Pakistan army plays both sides of the street in Afghanistan. For Washington and New Delhi it makes no sense to take a segmented view of the terror groups operating in Afghanistan and India. As they both bleed from terror, India and the US must jointly measure up to the shared security challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan. New Delhi must contribute more to the international efforts in Afghanistan and the US must assist India in defeating the Pakistan-based terror groups.