Obama's wooing of India not that seductive

• Source: Global Times
• [08:54 November 17 2010]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Shastri Ramachandaran

US President Barack Obama's three-day visit to India has given rise to diverse conclusions about the foreign policy directions and inclinations of the government of the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The most obvious, and overwhelming, impact of the Obama-Singh summit is the impression that the two leaders are too close for the comfort of some other countries.

A deeper examination of the issues involved and some developments following Obama's visit suggest that this is not really the case.

Support to India for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council (US), removal of export controls on high technology and dual-use equipment, acceptance of India in nuclear regulatory bodies such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and commercial deals worth $10 billion are the four major positives of the visit.

But there are quite a few negatives as well, including Obama not going the whole way to address India's concerns on terrorism and Afghanistan. While he is guilty of omission on these two scores, Obama's "sins of commission" on Myanmar and Iran are clear pointers to the limits of how cosy India-US relations can get.

To take the plus points, on the US issue, three of its five members had already come out in support of India's case. It was felt that if the US, too, pitched for India then China would be more forthcoming about its stand. When Obama said that in "the years ahead the US looks forward to welcoming India" in the Security Council, many in the Indian media pointed a finger at China alone holding back.

Beijing proved the Indian skeptics wrong by declaring on the very day Obama left Delhi that China supports India's desire for a bigger role in the US. These are at best expressions of support and do not translate into votes either from the US or China. 

But it's not as if membership of the Security Council is to be thrown open tomorrow. Regardless of what the US says, India has to work to get the votes of UN General Assembly members on the strength of its own credentials.

As for the removal of export control restrictions and commercial deals, the US needs these more than India in order to revive its own economy. As Obama himself said, the commercial deals hold out the promise of 55,000 US jobs. Membership of NSG and MTCR is also in the interests of US companies which hope to sell nuclear reactors and technology under the India-US civilian nuclear agreement.