'Twin Towers Of Democracy'

Thank you Mr. Talbott, thank you Mr. Cohen for those very gracious words ofintroduction.

This is my first visit to the United States since I assumed charge as India's Minister for ExternalAffairs, but as has just been pointed out I am not a stranger to this country or to this city.

Mr. Talbott, you are somebody who is particularly admired in India. Your contribution to the recentadvancement of India/U.S. relations is considerable. The vision articulated by President Clinton and PrimeMinister Vajpayee in Delhi in March 2000 was in a large part the result of the very intense exchange youconducted with my colleague Minister Jaswant Singh over the previous two years. Those exchanges laid thefoundation for a relationship that my Prime Minister has described as one between two natural allies. I amglad that you are leading this vibrant institution now. I shall look forward to working with you on manyissues of common concern.

Ladies and gentlemen, we meet today on the eve of the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks onSeptember 11th. The horrendous event of that fateful Tuesday shook not just the United States but all of thecivilized world. Thousands of innocent people perished. Modern technology carried images of this barbarityacross the globe in real time. The whole world felt wounded.

President Bush said it was not an act of terrorism but an act of war. This is a war in which India and theUnited States stand shoulder to shoulder.

India has long been a victim of clandestine warfare and state-sponsored cross-border terrorism carried outin the name of religion. In the last 20 years over 50,000 innocent Indians have been victims of terrorism. Ouraircraft have been hijacked, trains and buses have been bombed, market places, work places and centers oflearning have been attacked. Even women and children have not been spared.

Posterity may well judge September 11th to be a watershed in the history of modern civilization. Thedramatic events of that day brought home the fact that terrorism is a global menace, not constrained bygeographical or national boundaries. Democratic and open societies such as ours are particularly vulnerable tothe threat of organized terrorism. What the terrorists seek to destroy are the values and principles thatdemocracies cherish. India and the United States, therefore, have a vital stake in defeating the forces ofterror.

During his visit to the United States last year Prime Minister Vajpayee said that the terrible tragedy ofSeptember 11th has created the opportunity to fashion a determined global response to terrorism in all itsforms and manifestations, wherever it exists and under whatever name. That is the principal challenge beforeus today.

The war we are currently engaged in is different from any that mankind has fought earlier. The enemy thenwas clearly identifiable. The rules of engagement were clearly defined. The actors were nation states.

During the Cold War too, the ideological fault lines were clearly delineated. The terrorist in contrast isan undefined enemy. He recognizes no rules and no boundaries. His behavior is neither rational norpredictable. He targets unarmed civilians. His ideology is that of hate.

Our task therefore is to deal with a shadowy and dangers adversary. The doctrines of security so carefullycultivated in earlier times are not relevant to this type of warfare. Deterrence has no effect. September 11thdemonstrated that in an age of technological advancement the terrorist was able to utilize a relatively modesttechnology to wreak destruction on a mass scale. We are still to develop an effective response to the suicideattacks. The intersection of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism complicate our task further.

We have had a measure of success in targeting terrorists and in losing their state sponsors to rein intheir irresponsibility, but we've had rather limited success in changing permanently their ingrained patternof behavior. For that to happen military action alone will not suffice. We have to alter attitudes andconfront the mindset that breeds terrorism.

It would be equally erroneous to frame our war on terrorism in the context of a clash of civilization or aconflict of religion. Tolerance and pluralism rest on the foundations of democracy. India's experiment overthe last five decades has proved that democracy alone can harmoniously weave together the strands of amulticultural and multireligious society.

Terrorist violence sprouts from the seeds of religious extremism and fanaticism. It is nurtured by the soilof authoritarianism. The root cause of terrorism is the absence of democracy and intolerance of dissent. It isaggravated by the underdevelopment and social inequities. It is by addressing the internal character ofsocieties that have insidiously bread distorted human values that terrorism can finally be vanquished. This isa task that also requires greater international cooperation, especially among nations that believe indemocracy, pluralism, and universally applicable standards of human rights.

It's a paradox that while democracies are very vulnerable to terrorism, at the same time they remain thebiggest bulwark against terrorism. The combat against terrorism must be combined with the reassertion ofdemocracy throughout the world. India and the United States are allies in the cause of democracy. Together wecreated the community of democracy as a twin towers of democracy and as nations posed from many positions and[fates] we share the same vision, that freedom and governance based on people's content, provide the strongestfoundation for both peace and prosperity, and that they are universal aspirations constrained neither byculture nor levels of economic development.

We represent a fifth of humanity and a quarter of the world's economy. We have built creativeentrepreneurial societies. We are leaders in the information age. The currents of commerce and culture linkingour societies run strong and deep. This presents us with an unparalleled opportunity as well as profoundresponsibility to work together in partnership of shared endeavors. These range from managing the consequencesof instability, eliminating the ideological and financial sources of terrorism, protecting the sea lanes ofcommunication, securing a stable and free access to energy sources and markets in the region, and preventingthe proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Prime Minister Vajpayee will be meeting President Bush in New York in a couple of days from now. Sincetheir first meeting in Washington ten months ago the pace of our relationship has accelerated greatly. Itschanges in the field of defense have emerged as our most valued asset. The Defense Policy Group was revivedlast year. India and the U.S. Special Forces undertook joint exercises for the first time in Agra in May. Asecond round of such exercises is being planned in Alaska in the near future.

Our navies are now engaged in joint patrolling in the Straits of Malacca. We have welcomed the lifting ofeconomic restrictions which has reopened the prospect of substantive trade in military items and of technicalcooperation in defense production.

Our newest strategic framework dialogue has taken root facilitating a closer interaction in areas such asnonproliferation, counterproliferation, missile defense, and U.S. plans to reduce its strategic nucleararsenal. India's already subscribed to and remains committed to the global elimination of weapons of massdestruction.

At the same time, even as we maintain a minimum credible nuclear deterrent, we have proclaimed a policy ofno first use and a voluntary moratorium on further explosive nuclear underground testing. India's nuclearpolicy is one of constraint and responsibility.

Our bilateral agenda also includes a new stimulus to high technology commerce, civilian space cooperationand civilian nuclear cooperation. India has consistently striven to harness modern technology for the benefitof its large population. We have adapted technologies to suit the unique genius of our people. A productivepartnership between the United States and India holds out the promise of both increased commerce andaccelerated development.

We are also keen to strengthen our bilateral economic dialogue. The United States is already India'slargest trading partner and the largest foreign investor. The time is right for a further expansion of thisrelationship. The Indian economy is reckoned to be among the fastest growing economies of the world. Our GDPhas grown at an average annual rate of six percent over the last decade. Despite a global slow-down, India'sgrowth prospects are promising. There is political stability and a firm commitment to take forward oureconomic response program. Our objective is to double the per capita income in the next ten years.

Even as we pursue the campaign against terrorism, India and the United States are jointly addressing otherareas of global concern. We are committed to battling poverty so that the promise of a new economy permeateseverywhere. We support an open, equitable and rule-based multilateral trading system. As leaders in theforefront of the new high technology economy, we recognize that countries can achieve robust economic growthwhile protecting the environment and combating global warming. A Bilateral Global Issues Forum has beenestablished whose first meeting is expected to take place in Delhi next month.

We must also work to spread democracy at the national and also international level. Sometimes themultilateral vocation of the United States is forgotten. Almost all the significant multilateral institutionswere created as a result of U.S. initiative. The United Nations, the World Bank, the International MonetaryFund and the GATT reincarnated now as the World Trade Organization. They needed initial guidance. Now severaldecades after their creation will require changes in their governance. We need to readjust the structures ofdecisionmaking in international bodies to reflect contemporary reality. We cannot hope to foster a democraticculture in the world until the principal international institutions are themselves democratized and made morerepresentative.

Rapid technological advances have propelled us into a globalized world. It is fashionable today to talk ofbridging the digital divide. While the benefits of globalization should not be discounted we cannot also beblind to its implications for the security of developing countries. The global economy can be harnessed in thecourse of closing the gap between the North and the South and need not be an instrument of neocolonialconquest.

Addressing the challenges of today necessitates an attitude of give and take. A novel feature of ourrelationship is that we have become sensitive to each other's strategic compulsion and frailty. Dissent anddifferences are a natural part of democracy. These are sometimes over-emphasized in our erstwhile exchanges.Not the many commonalities which is now the practice on both sides.

To sum up, therefore, the important challenges that the world faces today are those of security, ofeconomic development and of technology. The India/U.S. partnership is endowed with resources to attain thegoals which our founding fathers dreamed of -- a free and democratic world which would be humane, peaceful,prosperous, and equitable. We could work together for promoting political moderation and economicmodernization. With our shared values and convergence of interests and as engaged democracies we can togetherenrich our respective societies and also work together for regional and global security and prosperity.

Thank you very much.