India has every reason to welcome US President Barack Obama's new engagement with the Burmese government that could help end the prolonged international isolation of our eastern neighbour so critical to our internal security and Asian strategy.

For years now Delhi had cautioned Washington against the policy of isolating Burma and urged the US to recognise the genuine insecurities of the Burmese ruling elite. In a speech at Tokyo that set the tone for his first presidential tour of Asia, Obama has made a long overdue political gesture to Burma's military rulers.

In explicitly underlining the American support for Burma's territorial integrity, Obama was offering reassurance to the Generals who see themselves as the sole custodians of the nation's unity and fear that political reform might unleash uncontrollable ethnic warfare.

Even the most trenchant critics of Burmese military rule have argued that Western support for the nation's unity and territorial integrity must be an early critical step in any international effort to promote internal political change.

In Tokyo, Obama did precisely that. "We support a Burma that is unified, peaceful, prosperous, and democratic. And as Burma moves in that direction, a better relationship with the United States is possible," Obama said in Tokyo.

Obama's public emphasis on Burma's national unity is believed to be part of the broader political framework for the bilateral engagement that had been negotiated in recent weeks between the two sides.

The Obama Administration has also consulted Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the voice of Burma's democratic aspirations in reversing the previous American policies. This framework is said to lay out a series of reciprocal actions that will lead to the end of US and Western sanctions against Burma.

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