Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the Obama adminstrations first state guest,and his visit is expected to clarify a range of niggling doubts about the Indo-US equation. While George W. Bush and Dr Singh decisively inaugurated a new chapter with the nuclear deal,which promised to be only the beginning of a beautiful friendship between two like-minded democracies,was that turnaround for keeps? When Obama was still an unknown quantity during the presidential campaign,he struck a couple of wrong notes with his scare talk about outsourcing,and Democrat mutterings on non-proliferation. In recent months,there has been palpable unease on the Indian side of the equation,as the Obama administration seemed to have simply let go of the India plot. It has tended to use Pakistan as the fulcrum for South Asia,and sees India as one knotty strand in the Afghanistan tangle. Gen McChrystals report on increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan being likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani countermeasures hasnt helped,and nor has Obamas recent visit to China,where he seemed to tacitly endorse a mediatory role for China in South Asian affairs. It seemed to suggest that India had simply fallen between two stools Pakistan and China were urgent priorities for different reasons. Of course,given Obamas complete immersion in his difficult domestic agenda and two battlefronts,this perception is probably more circumstantial than conscious. Manmohan Singhs visit will be significant in how it manages to convey the congruence of Indian and US interests,Indias economic stakes and its participation in security matters while also pointing out the Indian perception on Afghanistan and Pakistan and where it may depart from the American vision. India must also hammer home the fact that it is invested in maintaining independent and valuable ties with both the US and China. Meanwhile,there are several concrete deliverables on the Indo-US agenda,from an agreement on nuclear reprocessing procedure to expanding areas of consensus on climate action,financial and tech transfers,counter-terrorism cooperation and expanded intelligence exchange. Defence ties have been dramatically amped up after the nuclear deal,and there is expected to be much greater emphasis on education and cultural synergies. Informally,India and the US have strong economic and social links that have their own robust logic. What this visit seeks to put across is a cogent argument for a natural Indo-US partnership.
