US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for deeper regional security cooperation and trade ties in talks with Indian leaders yesterday, held in the shadow of triple bomb blasts in Mumbai.
India’s concerns over the US troop drawdown in Afghanistan and New Delhi’s renewed peace talks with arch-rival Pakistan were expected to figure in the “strategic dialogue” under way in the Indian capital.
Clinton held talks with India’s national security adviser and foreign minister and was later to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, before flying today to the southern city of Chennai.
Photo: AFP
She said there were three areas where the countries could deepen what Washington considers “a defining partnership of the 21st century,” namely trade and investment, security cooperation and civil nuclear technology.
Progress has been made, Clinton said in a speech alongside Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, “but there is still a great deal more room for our countries to make progress together.”
Her visit follows the blasts in Mumbai last week that killed 19 people and injured more than 130.
No one has claimed responsibility, but relations between India and Pakistan have been undermined in the past by militant strikes that New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based groups.
“We believe there’s been some good progress between India and Pakistan in the last few months,” a senior US administration official said, adding that Clinton was keen to help sustain that momentum.
India suspended its peace dialogue with Pakistan after the 2008 attacks in Mumbai and talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors only resumed earlier this year.
Washington’s own relations with Pakistan — a crucial counterterrorism ally — have deteriorated since US commandos shot and killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 in a Pakistani garrison town, sowing distrust on both sides.
Earlier this month, Washington suspended almost a third of the US$2.7 billion in security assistance it provides each year to Islamabad.
Clinton said that there was room for widening US-India cooperation on maritime security and counterterrorism, as well as -military-to-military contacts.
India is wary of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, fearing that Islamist elements within Pakistan could take advantage of a power vacuum in the war-torn country.
Clinton’s two-day trip follows US President Barack Obama’s visit in November — a courtship of India that reflects the rapid growth in the country’s economy and a shift in power to emerging nations as a result of the global financial crisis.
While economic ties have -improved significantly in recent years, they are still seen as falling short of their potential.
A landmark deal between the two countries in 2008 that allowed India to buy nuclear reactors and fuel was meant to lead to major contracts for US firms, but those hopes have been undermined by legal obstacles and uncertainty.
Clinton stated in her speech that “we need to resolve those issues that still remain so we can reap the rewards of a robust energy partnership.”
French and Russian state-run firms have signed deals to sell nuclear reactors to India, but privately run US firms have so far failed to make headway, largely because of regulatory concerns.
The US was also deeply disappointed in April when its bidders were dropped from the US$12 billion competition to provide India with 126 combat aircraft, one of the largest military contracts of recent years.
In other areas, commerce has been booming, with bilateral trade up by 30 percent to nearly US$50 billion last year.
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
Cozy knits, sparkly bobbles and Santa hats were all the canine rage on Sunday, as hundreds of sausage dogs and their owners converged on central London for an annual parade and get-together. The dachshunds’ gathering in London’s Hyde Park came after a previous “Sausage Walk” planned for Halloween had to be postponed, because it had become so popular organizers needed to apply for an events licence. “It was going to be too much fun so they canceled it,” laughed Nicky Bailey, the owner of three sausage dogs: Una and her two 19-week-old puppies Ember and Finnegan, wearing matching red coats and silver
RSS