The visit of United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to India on her first official tour to Asia is both symbolic of India’s emergence as a global power as also the deep engagement that is developing between New Delhi and Washington since the last one decade. What sets apart the Secretary of State’s latest visit to India is that the complementary gesture of making a stopover in Pakistan has been given a miss thereby suggesting that Washington has now realized that equating India and Pakistan on the same level has been an aberration of its past world view. It does not mean that Pakistan is off the radar in US strategic interest. Islamabad in fact remains a front line strategic ally in the American led war on terror. New Delhi on the other hand has slowly emerged as a trusted friend not just a strategic ally. There is a huge difference between strategic and being a natural ally. As the latest visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demonstrates, the India-US relationship is more long term and permanent. Also the quality of engagement between New Delhi and Washington is much deeper and promises to remain sustainable in the long run because of the many shared interests between the peoples of the two democracies. As far as Pakistan goes, the American establishment appears to be veering to the position that the former is a failed State and that other than a military relationship, there is not much to look beyond. It is not that the US is happy abandoning its former cold war ally but rather reluctantly it is doing so given the frustration over dealing with Islamabad, the latter having failed miserably to live up to the expectation of Washington.
Nevertheless this inevitable and growing natural partnership between India and the United States should not be seen, including in both the countries, as only keeping a watch over Pakistan or South Asia. The deep level of engagement underway and the promise of sustainable relationship would mean that much more will be expected of both countries to make this partnership meaningful and productive. Both countries should brace to take up the entire gamut of issues—from democracy to human rights; secularism to pluralism; education to healthcare; human development to good governance; energy security to non proliferation; economic growth to climate change; food security to sharing of technical know-how etc. While summit diplomacy and photo opportunities present the pleasant side of bilateral engagement, there will be differences that will come up which will be expected to be dealt with through dialogue and mutual understanding. For instance both have different perceptions on addressing climate change and nuclear non proliferation. It is important that the Indo-US relationship should focus on creating opportunities for solutions—of women empowerment; poverty alleviation; food security; education for all etc. The United States will also be expected to make corrections and in the process resolve issues in the Middle East or for that matter engage rather than confront on some of the global problems while India as an emerging global power will be demanded to act as one—showing greater maturity and understanding of several pending conflicts in the sub-continent.
