The contours of the strategic course correction in its relations with India, Pakistan and China, which the administration of President Barack Obama has undertaken since it assumed office a year ago, became evident once again during the just-concluded two-day visit of Dr Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, to New Delhi coinciding unintentionally with the end of Mr Obama's first year in office.
The conventional wisdom that the Pentagon and the State Department look at India through two different prisms, with the Pentagon under Mr Obama visualising a much larger role for India than one confined to the sub-continent as seen by the State Department, would have fewer takers after Dr Gates' visit. Dr Gates is in the unique position of having served as the Defence Secretary during the last two years of the second term of Mr George Bush, and continuing in the same position under Mr Obama.
Under Mr Bush, he was a supporter of the multi-dimensional strategic relationship with India, covering civilian nuclear co-operation, military supply relationship, networking between the armed forces of the two countries, a high-profile role for India in maritime security and maritime counter-terrorism and an important role for India as a respected interlocutor of the US in assessing the implications of China's rise as a modern military power in the wake of its rise as an economic power aspiring for a parity of status with the US.
Under Mr Bush, the interactions of Dr Gates, his predecessor (Mr Donald Rumsfeld) and their advisers and officials in the Pentagon with their Indian counterparts used to have a rich agenda with a much larger arc of vision-- with Indo-Pakistan tensions forming only a small part of it. During Dr Gates' just-concluded stay in Delhi, one saw the transition that he has made in adjusting himself to Mr Obama's vision of India as the pre-eminent power of South Asia, whose role will be important for the success of Mr Obama's Af-Pak strategy. He has also adjusted himself to Mr Obama's objective of quietly ridding the developing Indo-US strategic relationship of the preoccupation with China, which was an important characteristic of the India-related policies of the Bush Administration. Dr Gates came to India as a supporter of the mid-course correction in the Obama Administration's policies towards India which have been underway for a year now.
China seems to have figured as expected in Dr Gates' talks with Indian leaders and officials and in his interactions with the media, but not as a driving force of the Indo-US strategic relationship. As one reads and analyses the various comments made by Dr Gates, one is at a loss to understand whether there is any driving force at all under the Obama Administration--except perhaps Washington's anxiety to prevent any escalation in Indo-Pak tensions due to terrorism from derailing Mr Obama's objectives in the Af-Pak region.