The visit of the US National Security Adviser, James Jones, to New Delhi this week offers an important opportunity to define an ambitious new bilateral agenda for security cooperation. As the senior most visitor from Washington since Dr. Manmohan Singh was sworn into office for the second time and the coordinator of US foreign and national security policies, Jones could help set the tone for the political conversation at higher levels in the coming weeks.

The PM will meet President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G-8 summit next month in Italy and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should be in Delhi once she recovers from her recent arm injury.

If Dr. Singh’s first term resolved the prolonged non-proliferation dispute with the United States and got India into the nuclear club, his second term could be even more consequential. Dr. Singh and his advisers now have a chance to turn the other major historic contention between India and the United States — Pakistan — on its head. For much of the six decades since the partition of the sub-continent, New Delhi and Washington have rarely stopped arguing about

Pakistan.

There is a fleeting moment now to explore ways in which India and the US could nudge Pakistan towards political moderation, economic modernisation and regional integration. Obama’s reassuring remarks this week that he has no intention to mediate between India and Pakistan, should put New Delhi at ease and encourage it to take a positive approach towards regional security cooperation with Washington.

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