'Relentlessly Optimistic'

I want to begin by expressing my condolences to the victims and families of the attack on the Raghunath andRupiyowala Temples in Jammu, and to repeat what I said in a speech in New Delhi in February of this year.Then, I cited Edmund Burke's warning words that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is forgood men to do nothing."

I went on to note "some say that this absolutely uncompromising anti-terrorist code is simplistic, thatit does not take sufficiently into account historical complexities or expedient raisons d'etat. Some say thatwith respect to identifying terrorism, "it depends." To the contrary, I say that defeating terrorismis a matter of survival for ourselves, for our democratic values, for our religious freedom, for our children,for everything that we hold dear … Socrates thought that, "the beginning of wisdom is the definition ofterms." So let us please name those for what they are, who murder innocents for political motives and whoseek to bring down the very pillars of our democracy -- in New York, in Washington, in Srinagar, in NewDelhi" and Sunday evening and Monday morning in Jammu.

"These people are not misunderstood idealists. They are not disadvantaged dissidents. They are notreligious perfectionists. And they are not freedom fighters."

"They are terrorists, and we should always be sure to call them exactly that."

I made these points in my meeting on Monday with Deputy Prime Minister Advani.

Now to the main topic of my speech. You are about to discover that I am relentlessly optimistic in myassessment of the future of US-India strategic collaboration. Relentlessly optimistic.

In this context, I am going to take my lead from Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha. At a World Economic Forum/CIIdinner Monday evening in New Delhi, he said the following, "Indian foreign policy is not Pakistancentric. I have told our international interlocutors that we should spend a minimum of time on Pakistan. Let'sleave Pakistan aside for a time." I intend rigorously to follow his advice today.

Introduction

The Roman writer Seneca once observed, "If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind isfavorable." Writing much later, the German philosopher Nietzsche thought that, "Man's most enduringstupidity is forgetting what he is trying to do." With this in mind, I would like all of us on thisoccasion -- including during our question and answer session -- to stay entirely focused on the transformationof the US-India relationship, a recent extraordinary development of encompassing strategic importance in thispart of the world, and beyond.

Twenty months ago, under the 1998 US Pokhran II sanctions regime, the United States and India seemedconstantly at odds. Today, President Bush has this to say about India, "The Administration sees India'spotential to become one of the great democratic powers of the twenty-first century and has worked hard totransform our relationship accordingly." The President waived the 1998 sanctions, and drastically trimmedthe long "Entity List" which barred Americans from doing business with certain Indian companies fromover 150 Entities to less than 20. 

Twenty months ago, the American and Indian militaries conducted no jointoperations. Today, they have completed six major training exercises. Twenty months ago, American and Indianpolicymakers did not address together the important issues of cooperative high technology trade, civil spaceactivity, and civilian nuclear power. Today, all three of these subjects are under concentrated bilateraldiscussion, and the top of both governments is determined to make substantial progress.

President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee champion this powerful and positive bilateral interaction,reinforced by an unprecedented stream of Washington policymakers who have traveled to India. Since Sept 1,2001, five members of the Bush Cabinet have come to India, some more than once -- Secretary of State ColinPowell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, US Trade RepresentativeRobert Zoellick, and Director of the Environmental Protection Agency Christie Todd Whitman. 

Their efforts havebeen underpinned by nearly 100 US official visitors to this country at the rank of Assistant Secretary ofState or higher, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers, and Director of theFBI Robert Mueller. Robustly engaging with their Indian counterparts, these US policymakers give attention todiplomatic collaboration, counter-terrorism, defense and military-to-military teamwork, intelligence exchange,law enforcement, development assistance, joint scientific and health projects including on HIV/AIDS, and theglobal environment.

Transforming US-India Relations: Geopolitics in Asia

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 inter-state relations. With respect to overlapping vital national interests, let me nowbriefly share with you my "Big Three" for the next decade and beyond. They are to promote peace andfreedom in Asia, combat international terrorism, and slow the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In this context, Asia is poised to become the new strategic center of gravity in international politics. Withthis historically momentous shift, for the first time since the modern era began with the signing of theTreaty of Westphalia in 1648, the single largest concentration of international economic power will be foundnot in Europe - not in the Americas -- but in Asia. This return of Asia to center stage in the internationalsystem after almost five hundred years is occurring for at least three reasons:

• The long peace between the major Asian powers in the last quarter of the 20th century, underpinned by thesecurity presence of the United States in Asia, created the political conditions for economic prosperity;
  
  
• The success of the liberal international economic order permitted many Asian states to increase theireconomic growth rates far beyond the global historical norm; and,
  
  
• The presence of enlightened leadership in key Asian countries produced national strategies focused oneconomic development, expanded trade, and increased prosperity.

In such circumstances, peace within Asia -- a peace that helps perpetuate Asian prosperity -- remains anobjective that a transformed US-India relationship will help advance. Within a fellowship of democraticnations, the United States and India would benefit from an Asian environment free from inter-state conflict--- including among the region's great powers -- open to trade and commerce, and respectful of human rightsand personal freedoms. 

President Bush says it succinctly, "We seek a peaceful region where no power, orcoalition of powers, endangers the security or freedom of other nations; where military force is not used toresolve political disputes." Or as Henry Kissinger wrote twenty years ago, "the management of abalance of power is a permanent undertaking, not an exertion that has a foreseeable end."

Achieving this objective requires the United States to particularly 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 contributing to the construction of a peaceful andprosperous Asia binds the resources of the world's most powerful and most populous democracies in support offreedom, political moderation, and economic and technological development.

Even as together we support peace, prosperity and liberty in this part of the world, Asia remains an areawracked by a variety of serious threats. The most pressing current danger is international terrorism. Duringthe past decade, more familiar ethnic, nationalist, and separatist terrorist groups have been joined by neworganizations with murderous ideological motivations.

These newer terrorist organizations, which attract recruits by perverting great religious traditions, embody alethal threat to both India and the United States. Their worldview propels them to conduct deadly attacks toinflict mass, indiscriminate casualties among innocents. Both the United States and India are principalvictims of this new and more dangerous kind of terrorism.

If promoting peace, prosperity and freedom in Asia, and defeating international terrorism are two importantlong-term objectives of a transforming 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 other part of the globe has such a concentration of WMD nations and capabilities, and these disturbingtrends could worsen. As WMD programs have become more advanced and more effective as they mature, manycountries of concern 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 are rooted not simply in a crucial commonality of democratic governanceindispensable as that is, but also in the fundamental congruence of US and Indian vital national interests.Indeed, it is difficult for me to think easily of countries other than India and the United States thatcurrently face to the same striking degree all three of these intense challenges simultaneously -- advancingAsian stability based on democratic values; confronting daily the threat of international terror; and slowingthe further proliferation of WMD. This daunting trio will be an encompassing foundation for US-India strategiccooperation for years to come.

Transforming US-India Relations: Collaborating to Advance Stability

At this point, you may ask what the Bush and Vajpayee Administrations have done in detail to advance thedemocratic values and geopolitical interests that so bond the United States and India. In this regard, I amentirely under the influence of Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill who systematically stresses the differencebetween talk, and action. So here follows US-India actions.

Afghanistan

Advancing stability in Afghanistan even as our two nations continue to work on helping Afghans establishdemocratic institutions and practices, India and America are committed to encouraging a stable, free andpeaceful Afghanistan -- one with a representative central government that can provide physical and economicsecurity for its people. We want an Afghanistan that has good relations with all its neighbors and with theinternational community -- and one that will never again export terrorism.

While we place emphasis on economic reconstruction and help build national institutions such as the AfghanNational Army, the US and India agree that the hunt for the remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements mustcontinue vigorously until they are brought to justice.

Iraq

In the context of numerous US-India high level exchanges in recent months, the Government of India stoutlybelieves that Iraq should fully comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which orders Iraq to give upits Weapons of Mass Destruction. India earnestly hopes that Iraq will disarm peacefully. The BushAdministration steadfastly agrees with both these crucial propositions advanced by India.

Law Enforcement

As you know, the Portuguese Judicial Police on September 18 arrested in Lisbon Abu Salem Ansari, a notoriousmember of the Dawood Ibrahim narcoterrorist organization. Salem is wanted in India for his involvement in theBombay bomb blasts in 1993 that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. In possession of his falseidentity documents, the Government of Portugal thereafter formally charged and detained Abu Salem. For morethan 12 months leading up to this arrest, American law enforcement agencies, including the US Federal Bureauof Investigation, have closely cooperated with the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation and Interpol totrack and ultimately capture Abu Salem.

After his arrest, the Government of India asked the Portuguese to deport him to India in order to facecriminal charges here.Because of the prior involvement of the Bush Administration in assisting India to trackdown Salem and the muscular relationship between our respective law enforcement agencies, the Indian CBIrequested American assistance to intercede with the Portuguese to obtain custody of Abu Salem. The top of theBush Administration immediately concurred and acted within hours. American representatives facilitated severalmeetings between high-ranking CBI officials, the American Ambassador to Portugal, and Portuguese officials inLisbon. Although Salem remains in Portuguese custody, the United States is working with CBI and the Portugueseto obtain a favorable conclusion in this matter on behalf of the Government and people of India.

Transforming US-India Relations: Developing Capacities for Operating as Partners

Defense Policy

Defense cooperation between Indian and American armed forces builds military capacities on both sides forcombined operations. In May, US Air Force Airman first class Mitul Patel from 353rd Special Operations Groupseized the opportunity to deploy from the American airbase in Kadena, Okinawa to Air Force Station Agra totake part in the largest-ever airborne joint exercise between the United States and India. This 23-year oldGujarat-born American crew chief was responsible for launching MC-130s to fly with the Indian Air Force.During the exercise he witnessed an elite brigade of Indian paratroopers jumping with US Special Forces in the"Balance Iroquois 02-01."

In June and July 2002, the Indian Navy Ships Sukanya and Sharda conducted escort patrols for American shipsthrough the Malacca Straits in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Knowing what they would be up against ifthey had to deal with the Indian Navy, the pirates sensibly stayed away. The US Army 1st Battalion, 501stParachute Infantry Regiment welcomed 80 soldiers from India's 50th Independent Parachute Brigade to conduct"Geronimo Thrust" in September, the first-ever live fire exercise between American and Indianparatroopers. The jawans flew to Alaska in an Indian Air Force IL-76. This marked the first time that anIndian Air Force combat aircraft has landed on US soil.

With American warships now routinely refueling in Chennai and Mumbai, we saw in September and October thelargest-ever US-India naval exercise, called "Malabar." Over 1,500 American and Indian navalpersonnel participated during this four-day event, which featured flying operations, anti-submarine warfareexercises, and replenishment at sea.

In October 2002, again in Agra, an air transport exercise named "Cope India-02" developed a baselinefor future interoperability that will lead to a fighter aircraft exchange. USAF personnel, on board Indianaircraft, observed the drop of Indian paratroopers and heavy equipment. Both air forces learned each other'sformation flying techniques. The Indians marked the difference in the way the Americans drop cargo withdrag-parachutes and prepare drop zones. By the end of the exercise, Indian paratroops dropped from US C-130Hercules transporters.

In addition to all of this, in the past six months:

• The Office of Net Assessment, the Pentagon's key think tank, conducted its first seminar in India withcounterparts in the Integrated Defense Staff. That seminar will lead to future exchanges between the defenseresearch and analysis communities in both countries.
  
  
• The US Joint Staff in the Pentagon and the Indian Integrated Defense Staff established a formalrelationship in April during the first Joint Staff Talks in Washington. These talks will emphasize tri-serviceinstitutions, military planning, and tri-service doctrine.
  
  
• The US and Indian Defense Intelligence Agencies instituted a formal relationship.
  
  
• Indian and American Army Training and Doctrine Commands began a formal exchange on doctrinal matters thatwill bring our armies closer together at the operational and strategic level.
  
  
• Finally, Indian experts participated in a missile defense simulation in Colorado in June, and Indiandefense officials visited the United States to talk specifically about India's future involvement in USmissile defense programs.

Defense Sales

While exercises, visits, and exchanges are key to building joint military capacities for futureinteroperability, India also naturally views defense sales as a way to gauge the potential for substantivefuture bilateral military cooperation. In that regard, I am please to report that the past politicaldisconnects that hamstrung American defense sales to India are fading away.

There have been a number of breakthroughs on defense sales that have put the United States and India on theroad to a stable, long-term defense supply relationship.

• The Bush Administration has worked with the American Congress to amend the law requiring congressionalnotification of all applications for export to India of items on the US munitions list. Since October 24,2002, only those Major Defense Equipment (MDE) items above $14 million now require congressional notification.This change puts India in a category with American Treaty Allies such as South Korea and Japan.