Bush team best bet for Indo-US relations: Blackwill

Monday, 10 January 2005, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Going by what former US ambassador to India Robert Blackwell says, US President George W. Bush and his core team of top policy advisers are the best bet for the growing US-India relations. "I can't think of a better and more talented team to push Indo-US relations," said Blackwill, who is in India in his new incarnation as high-profile lobbyist and president of Barbour Griffith and Rogers, a top Washington-based lobbying firm. "Most importantly, Bush has a global approach to India as a world power," Blackwill emphasised. He was speaking at an interactive meeting organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here Monday. Blackwill will also be attending the two-day 11th CII Partnership Summit that begins in Kolkata Wednesday. US Secretary of State-designate Condoleeza Rice has "strategic DNA" and positive views on India that may turn out to be crucial in shaping the course of Indo-US relations, Blackwill said. "No one is closer to George Bush than Condy Rice," the strategy guru-turned-lobbyist said. Besides Rice, other key members of the Bush team, which includes Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of State designate Robert Zoellick and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, are also positively predisposed towards India, the former envoy said. "Too many people in Washington think of India as a hyphenated concept. But such a description flies in the face of reality and common sense. There is increasing acknowledgement of India's stature as a rising great power," said Blackwill, who earned a name for himself as a "friend of India" during his tenure as US ambassador to India (July 27, 2001, to July 30, 2003). In an emotive tone, he recalled a thousand smells of India, its spirituality, its cricket madness and all that makes "Mother India" a unique country of the mind to be in. "The rise of India and China as great world powers is more important than the dissolution of the Soviet Union," said Blackwill. Apart from a friendly Bush administration, Blackwill also enumerated a confluence of factors like a strong and successful Indian-American community and more Bobby Jindal-type people of Indian origin in US politics which is sure to make "2005 a great year for US-India relations." Blackwill's forecast, although optimistic on all counts, however, came as a dampener to those who were looking forward to US support to India's candidacy for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. "It's not going to happen soon," Blackwill said. He hastened to add that this had nothing to do with the merits of India's position but was due to structural problems of the UN. "If five permanent members can't agree, imagine what would happen if there were 14 permanent members as is being suggested," the top policy wonk of Washington's strategy establishment said. This will, however, not act as an impediment to steadily growing Indo-US relations. Blackwill tried to strike a fine balance, alluding to the "P-word". Instead of endorsing or criticizing it, Blackwill provided a realistic spin on the US' proposed transfer of F-16s to Pakistan, a sore point with India. "Should the US supply the F-16s to Pakistan when the latter has not conclusively terminated terror camps in its territory?" he asked.
Source: IANS
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