Obama should not lose sight on India: Burns

“To be fair,India is a difficult and irresolute partner on some of the issues,particularly climate. But,Obama can act more vigorously to restore the energy on India left to him by his predecessors,” Burns wrote in ‘Boston Globe’,published today hours before the Singh-Obama meet.

US should work “more actively” behind the scenes to urge India and Pakistan to restore their Composite Dialogue,reduce bilateral tensions,and commit to progress on the Kashmir issue,he wrote.

“As the United States is now the key power broker in the region,Obama is uniquely positioned to help nuclear-armed India and Pakistan avoid the nightmare fear of war that has bedevilled their relations since Partition in 1947,” he said.

Burns said Obama should push for stronger military and strategic ties between the two countries.

“India is a natural military partner of the United States given our common interest in resisting terrorism in South Asia and beyond,” he wrote in the aticle ‘Ways Obama can tend bonds with India’.

Burns wrote: “Our navies and air forces,in particular,have trained and worked effectively together in recent years. Our defence ties will be transformed should India decide to purchase advanced American military technology to replace its ageing and outdated Russian equipment.”

He said India must be more sensitive to Pakistani concerns over its involvement in Afghanistan while Islamabad should finally prosecute the terrorists responsible for last November’s reprehensible Mumbai attacks.

India is focused on making a dramatic reduction in poverty among its 700 million poor,Burns said and added that Obama could offer assistance from America’s Midwestern land-grant institutions that were pivotal in achieving historic breakthroughs in Indian food production four decades ago.

“The president could build on common US-India strengths in education and science by proposing more significant cooperation in space research and environmental technologies that would play to the comparative advantage of our private sectors and the 100,000 Indian students in US.”

Obama should embrace this moment (when he meets Singh) to restore direction to our partnership with India that has been among the most positive bipartisan foreign policy successes of the last two administrations,Burns wrote.