The President waived the 1998 sanctions against India, and drastically trimmed the long "EntityList" which barred Americans from doing business with certain Indian companies from over 150 Entities toless than 20.
Two years ago, the American and Indian militaries conducted no joint operations. Today, they have completedsix major training exercises. Two years ago, American and Indian policymakers did not address together theimportant issues of cooperative high technology trade, civil space activity, and civilian nuclear power.Today, all three of these subjects are under concentrated bilateral discussion, and both governments aredetermined to make substantial progress. Two years ago, American sanctions against India undermined bilateraldiplomatic cooperation on regional and global issues. All that has changed, from Iraq, to Afghanistan, to Asiawrit large.
President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee champion this powerful and positive bilateral interaction with topdown direction, reinforced by an unprecedented stream of Washington policymakers who have traveled to India.The Prime Minister has spoken of India and the United States as "natural allies." He is right. SinceSept 1, 2001, five members of the Bush Cabinet have come to India, some more than once. Nearly 100 US officialvisitors to India at the rank of Assistant Secretary of State or higher have reinforced their efforts.
In my view, close and cooperative relations between America and India will endure over the long run mostimportantly because of the convergence of their democratic values and vital national interests. Our democraticprinciples bind us -- a common respect for individual freedom, the rule of law, the importance of civilsociety, and peaceful state-to-state relations. With respect to overlapping US-India vital national interests,my "Big Three" for the next decade and beyond are to promote peace and freedom in Asia, combatinternational terrorism, and slow the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Managing Asian Security
Peace within Asia -- a peace that promotes freedom and prosperity - will be advanced by the transformedUS-India relationship. Within a fellowship of democratic nations, the United States and India would benefitfrom an Asian environment free from inter-state conflict --- including among the region's great powers -- opento trade and commerce, and respectful of human rights and personal freedoms. President Bush says itsuccinctly, "We seek a peaceful region where no power, or coalition of powers, endangers the security orfreedom of other nations; where military force is not used to resolve political disputes."
Achieving this paramount goal requires the United States particularly to strengthen political, economic, andmilitary-to-military relations with those Asian states that share our democratic values and nationalinterests. That spells India. A strong US-India partnership contributes to the construction of a peaceful andprosperous Asia and binds the resources of the world's most powerful and most populous democracies in supportof freedom, political moderation, and economic and technological development.
Even as the US and India together support peace, prosperity and liberty in this part of the world, Asiaremains an area wracked by the cancer of international terrorism. During the past decade, more familiarethnic, nationalist, and separatist terrorist groups have been joined by new organizations with murderousideological motivations. These newer terrorist organizations, which attract recruits by perverting greatreligious traditions, embody a lethal threat to both India and the United States. Their worldview propels themto conduct deadly attacks to inflict mass, indiscriminate casualties among innocents. Both the United Statesand India are principal victims of this new and more dangerous kind of terrorism. If you visitors to Indiadoubt this, take a look at the bullet holes still evident at the Indian Parliament from the December 13, 2001,terrorist attack on that incandescent symbol of Indian democracy. Other nations may fade in the marathon waragainst terrorism. India and the United States will be there together at the finish - when we win.
If promoting peace, prosperity and freedom in Asia, and ending international terrorism are two importantlong-term objectives of a transformed US-Indian relationship, the third and final strategic challengeunderlying this radical reform of our bilateral ties is to curtail the proliferation of weapons of massdestruction in Asia, and the means to deliver them. Today, Asia has eight nations that either have nuclearweapons capabilities, or are trying to acquire them. Nine countries have biological and chemical weapons orare attempting to obtain them. Eight nations have ballistic missiles with ranges exceeding 1,000 km. No otherpart of the globe has such a concentration of WMD nations and capabilities, and these disturbing trends couldworsen. As WMD programs have become more advanced and more effective as they mature, some irresponsiblecountries have become more aggressive in pursuing them.
Both India and the United States share a common vital national interest in restraining the furtherproliferation of WMD, and their means of delivery. Both countries face a significant risk within the next fewyears of confronting either terrorists or rogue states armed with such WMD capabilities.
Thus, strong US-India relations over the long term are rooted not simply in an enduring commitment todemocratic governance indispensable as that is, but also in the fundamental congruence of US and Indian vitalnational interests. Indeed, it is difficult for me to think easily of countries other than India and theUnited States that currently face to the same striking degree all three of these intense challengessimultaneously -- advancing Asian stability based on democratic values; confronting the threat ofinternational terror; and slowing the further proliferation of WMD. This daunting trio will be an encompassingfoundation for US-India strategic cooperation for many years to come.
The Strategic Economic Dimension of the US-India Relationship
"Why," you may ask, "does the Bush Administration care about US-India economic ties, and thefuture of the Indian economy?" After all, there are over 190 nations in the world. What is so specialabout India in this regard? The President recently issued "The National Security Strategy for the UnitedStates of America," which sets forth our diplomatic and security approach to the current openings anddangers within the international system, an approach based on America's democratic values. This report, whichbears President Bush's personal stamp, describes India as one of the "great democratic powers of the 21stcentury."
I now want to make a point that is important to my presentation of managing the opportunities and problems ofAsian security. As I used to teach students in my course on strategy at Harvard University, national economicstrength is a prerequisite for sustained diplomatic influence and military muscle. The close US-Indiapartnership that I have just enumerated would be made more wide reaching and successful by a fundamentallyreformed and globalized Indian economy. I openly admit, therefore, that there is a certain amount of Americanself-interest as we hope for the best for India's economic performance in the years ahead.
On the geopolitical side, an India that takes full advantage of its extraordinary human capital to boost itseconomy would be a more effective strategic collaborator with the US over the next decades, including inpromoting peace, stability and freedom in Asia. An India that enters into a full fledged series of secondgeneration domestic economic reforms would inevitably play an increasingly influential role in internationalaffairs across the board, and that too would be beneficial for the United States.
Conclusion
President Bush vigorously promotes US-India strategic interaction because a powerful India is a criticalmember of the core group of liberal democracies that will collaborate to strengthen Asian security in thedecade ahead: to bolster democracy and preserve a balance of power in Asia; to defeat international terrorism;and to curb the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
As I draw to a close, I am reminded of my former boss and not obscure Harvard professor Henry Kissinger whoobserved in his book Diplomacy, that