Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

At the end of the first round of strategic dialogue between India and the United States here, the two countries significantly expanded the breadth of their collaboration across a range of areas. These include counter-terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, United Nations Security Council reform, trade and investment, science and technology, climate change mitigation, energy and food security, education, agriculture, healthcare and empowerment of women.

In a rare symbolic gesture designed to underscore the importance of the U.S.' relationship with India, President Barack Obama made a brief visit to the State Department during a reception for select officials and the media. He announced that his much anticipated visit to India would come in “early November.”

The dialogue, led by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saw both sides pledging to “continue to consult each other closely on regional and global developments and remain sensitive to each other's interests,” given their role as strategic partners.

Reiterating Under Secretary William Burns' statements at a recent event, Ms. Clinton said after the conclusion of the discussions that the U.S. considered India an important part of any future reform plans for the Security Council, even if there was no consensus yet in the multilateral context.

Both Indian officials and their U.S. counterparts came out with strong comments on the need to tackle terror attacks. In his opening remarks before the plenary session, Mr. Krishna said: “Though the epicentre of this threat lies in India's neighbourhood, it reaches far and wide all across the world as we have seen time and again, and most recently a few weeks back in the Times Square.”

He also noted that given that the groups preaching “the ideology of hatred and violence are increasingly coalescing, sharing resources and operating as one,” it was incumbent upon both countries to focus their efforts “laser-like” on every one of them.

Headley issue

In the course of the strategic dialogue, Mr. Krishna said India was assured of access to David Headley. India's Ambassador to the U.S. Meera Shankar added that the Indian delegation was in touch with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the “entire process” after which the assurances were made.

President Obama also emphasised the transnational nature of terror threats. He said tackling these threats would require “making progress for the Afghan people and preventing terrorism, whether it's in Manhattan or in Mumbai.” It would include securing vulnerable nuclear materials, a goal that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had furthered by committing India to building a new centre of excellence for nuclear energy and security.

Mr. Obama again touched upon the high priority his administration accorded to the U.S.-India relationship. Pointing to Dr. Singh's visit last November, he said: “It was a state visit that demonstrated that our relations with India are at the highest of priorities for my administration, and for me personally as President of the United States.” He believed that India was a “leader in Asia and around the world. It's a rising power and a responsible global power.”

Mr. Obama said his administration's new National Security Strategy, released last week, made the importance of India “absolutely clear.” “A fundamental pillar of America's comprehensive engagement with the world involves deepening our cooperation with the 21st century centres of influence — and that includes India,” he said.

Labels: Barack Obama, counter-terrorism, disarmament, Hillary Clinton, non-proliferation, S.M. Krishna, Strategic Dialogue

From The Hindu

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Tuesday discussed sanctions against Iran and currency rebalancing on the sidelines of the ongoing Nuclear Security Summit, according to National Security Council Senior Director For Asian Affairs Jeff Bader.

During a conference call after the meeting, Mr. Bader said: “On non-proliferation much of the discussion … focused on Iran. The Chinese very clearly share our concern about the Iranian nuclear programme.” He said the U.S., China, and other members of the P5+1 were united in the dual-track approach to the Iran nuclear issue.

In that context, both Presidents reportedly agreed to instruct their delegations to “work with the P5+1 and United Nations Security Council representatives on a sanctions resolution”, said Mr. Bader. He said “the Chinese are actively at the table in New York in discussions with Ambassador [to the United Nations Susan] Rice, as well as the other P5+1 countries and this was “a sign of international unity on this issue”.

However, asked whether the Chinese actually gave their commitment to some form of sanctions or agreed to anything specific, Mr. Bader said: “The two Presidents agreed that the two delegations should work on a sanctions resolution in New York, and that's what we're doing. We have started to work [on] that and we are going to be working on that in the coming days and weeks.” He added that Mr. Obama, in the meeting, made clear the sense of urgency, and the Chinese President made clear that China was prepared to work with the U.S.

Touching upon an issue that has proved to be contentious in recent months, Mr. Obama reaffirmed his view that for a global, sustained and balanced economic recovery it was important that China move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate. Mr. Bader said: “The President also noted his concern over some market access issues, market access barriers, in China and the need to address them as part of the rebalancing effort.”

Declining to comment on whether the specific question of the postponed deadline for labelling China as a “currency manipulator” came up in the discussion Mr. Bader only said, “The rebalancing issue was discussed.” Initially, the report describing China as a currency manipulator was expected to be released on April 15.

Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said: “I have decided to delay publication of the report to Congress on the international economic and exchange rate policies of our major trading partners due on April 15.” He argued that there was going to be a series of key high-level meetings over the next three months that would be critical to introducing policies for a “stronger, more sustainable, and more balanced global economy”.

Mr. Geithner specifically alluded to the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings in Washington later in April, the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China in May, and the G-20 Finance Ministers and Leaders meetings in June. He added, “I believe these meetings are the best avenue for advancing U.S. interests at this time.”

In a statement, Mr. Geithner, however, clearly hinted at the U.S.'s growing concern over its trade deficit with China the role of the Chinese currency exchange rate in maintaining that deficit. He said that though surplus economies with inflexible exchange rates contributed to high growth in the aftermath of the global recession, at this time economic rebalancing was necessary, and it could be achieved through a combination of policies to strengthen domestic demand with greater exchange rate flexibility.

“This is especially true in China,” Mr. Geithner said, adding that “China's continued maintenance of a currency peg has required increasingly large volumes of currency intervention… [and its] inflexible exchange rate has made it difficult for other emerging market economies to let their currencies appreciate.”

In late March, 130 members of the U.S. House of Representatives in a letter pressed White House to declare China as a currency manipulator; they also urged the Department of Commerce to impose sanctions on China on the grounds of “unfair trade practices”. In addition, reports said “14 senators unveiled legislation calling for stiff trade sanctions against China if it does not let the Yuan rise in value against the dollar.”

In turn China had rejected pressure from the U.S. Congress and reportedly “accused Washington of trade protectionism that Beijing said could hurt the global economic recovery”.

Labels: Chinese Yuan, international sanctions, non-proliferation, trade protectionism

From The Hindu

Nuclear security and non-proliferation, Afghanistan, food security, and poverty reduction featured prominently in the bilateral discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama on Sunday, Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, told media during a teleconference.

Mr. Obama had, in particular, thanked Dr. Singh for the humanitarian and development work that India has been undertaking in Afghanistan, Mr. Rhodes added. At the meeting both leaders emphasised the strategic importance of the India-United States relationship to the entire world, he said.

The Singh-Obama meeting was the first in series of bilateral talks that President Obama is holding prior to the kickoff of the Nuclear Security Summit of April 12-13.

During the media interaction Mr. Rhodes however declined to comment on whether or not Mr. Obama had assured Dr. Singh that India would have access to Mumbai attacks suspect David Coleman Headley, currently in custody in the U.S. The case is the responsibility of the U.S. Justice Department and the Attorney General, he said.

No binding communiqué likely

Regarding the question of whether a binding communiqué would emerge as a result of the summit discussions Mr. Rhodes said that the main outcome of the meetings in Washington would be to move towards the goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear materials world over within the next four years.

“Specific national actions… and concrete steps towards such an effort will be required,” Mr. Rhodes said in this regard, and countries such as Chile have already demonstrated the role of national commitments to global nuclear security by transferring their stocks of enriched uranium to the U.S..

Laura Holgate, Senior Director, WMD Terrorism and Threat Reduction, further added that no legally binding communiqué would emerge from this summit; however there will be a political agreement. This would be consistent with the overall aim of the summit, which was to raise awareness of the threat of nuclear terrorism and the actions needed to tackle that threat, she said.

Other bilateral discussions

On other key bilateral discussions held by President Obama, Mr. Rhodes said that the U.S. had established a new agreement on the Northern Distribution Network during discussions with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Under this agreement the U.S. would be able to utilise polar air routes that then channelled both troops and equipment supplies via Kazakhstan into countries such as Afghanistan. This would save the U.S. significant amounts of time and money, Mr. Rhodes explained.

On President’s Obama’s bilateral discussions with the President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and President Nazarbayev, Mr. Rhodes commented that both countries had given up plans for nuclear weapons development that they might have had in the past, and yet were on the route to nuclear security and economic prosperity.

Labels: Barack Obama, India-U.S. ties, Manmohan Singh, non-proliferation, NPT, nuclear issue