At the heart of this is the challenge to reshape the engagement with US. In the initial months of the Obama administration, while Indian diplomats hedged their bets on the elections outcome here, Pakistan backed by a resurgent China made important diplomatic gains on the India front. There is no doubt that Washington does value its partnership with New Delhi, but its instincts are going to be far different from what it was when George W. Bush was in the White House. India was then projected as a rising democratic force that could challenge Chinese dominance, but that is now replaced with a new strategic context where the US feels the need to partner with China on a range of issues — dealing with the global economic crisis, getting Pakistan’s army to act more decisively on its western borders, engaging Iran (it has been invited to the July 4 celebrations), and now the latest being re-energising the six-party talks after North Korea exploded a nuclear device. One can add operationalising the CTBT and FMCT to the list.

The strategic context has rapidly changed since the time India went to polls. While our political masters were preoccupied with electoral concerns, Indian diplomacy reacted with old fashioned predictability even though these changes were anticipated. Saeed’s release and UK’s surprising intransigence in the UN, are just symptoms of the fast changing list of priorities for all major powers. It is clear that the onus is squarely on India to now be imaginative and provide a fresh momentum to its engagement with the US — one of the areas could be defence, which suffered due to Left pressure in the last term and then, of course, moving faster on trade, and liberalising FDI norms. The encouraging sign is that the PM seems to understand the urgency, going by some of the handpicked appointments he has made in ministries that have significant external orientations. He will be meeting Obama next month at the G-8 Summit, and before that the leaders of Russia, China and Brazil, all of which will be opportunities. At the core of this engagement will have to be a renewed effort at adding substance to the relationship than just winning the argument. Reason: Unlike six months ago, no one is really volunteering unqualified help today.

... contd.