11-21-2003, 10:47 PM
[url="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EK22Df05.html"]India revels in new diplomatic offensive [/url]
India revels in new diplomatic offensive
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - The significance of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's trip last week to Russia, Tajikistan and Syria lies as much in the signing of important bilateral agreements as in the message it has sent out to the international community. The visits are a signal that India might be moving closer to the United States and Israel, but it is not about to abandon its old friends.
While reports of Russia's increasing interest in improving ties with Pakistan had caused some concern in India in recent months, Delhi's growing ties with the US have troubled the Russians. The joint declaration signed at the end of Vajpayee's visit to Moscow indicates that the India-Russia relationship remains firmly grounded on common perceptions of global issues.
On terrorism - an issue of critical importance to both countries - India and Russia recorded their "complete identity of views". Moscow expressed full support to India in its fight against terrorism in Kashmir and called on Pakistan "to implement in full its assurances to prevent infiltration of terrorists across the Line of Control" and "to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir as a prerequisite for a purposeful dialogue between the two countries". India reciprocated by expressing support for the Russian action in Chechnya.
Without mentioning the US by name, the two countries "confirmed their opposition to the unilateral use or threat of use of force in violation of the UN Charter" and expressed support for a multipolar world.
Providing substance to the warm ties are 10 agreements that will enhance cooperation in space, science and technology. Russia will assist India in its mission to the moon. Of significance to India's aerospace is a deal under which it will supply six to eight satellites for a European navigation system that the Russians are setting up. Russia will also assist in setting up joint research centers in India - a gas hydrate studies center in Chennai and an earthquake research center in Delhi.
Significant ground was covered during Vajpayee's visit with regard to India's purchase of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. An agreement on the purchase - negotiations have been on since 1995 - is likely to be signed later this month, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov visits Delhi.
Tajikistan, India's nearest central Asian neighbor, was the second halt on Vajpayee's three-nation trip. India's steadily expanding engagement with Tajikistan must be seen in the context of Tajikistan's proximity to Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the energy-rich Central Asian republics.
India and Tajikistan signed a bilateral extradition treaty, agreements to enhance cooperation in defense, information technology etc and an agreement on the setting up a joint working group to combat terrorism.
Reports of the "Indian military base" in Tajikistan dominated Vajpayee's sojourn in Tajikistan. In the run-up to the visit, reports in the media had drawn attention to "India's undeclared military presence" in Tajikistan. A report in the Indian Express described the Ayni air base near Dushanbe as "India's first-ever military base in a foreign country". Citing defense ministry sources, the report said that India is upgrading infrastructure at the Ayni air base and "has plans to station its troops and air platforms in the near future". While both countries denied reports of an Indian military base at Ayni, they admitted that India would be overhauling this dilapidated air base.
Incidentally, Indian and Tajik special forces are said to have held joint military exercises in February this year. India's nominal military presence in Tajikistan is nowhere near that of the Russians and the Americans and is unlikely to bother them. But it has rattled Pakistan, which believes that India is trying to encircle it. Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf apparently raised the issue of India's military presence in Tajikistan when he met his Tajik counterpart Emamoli Rakhmanov early this year at Almaty.
An agreement of significance to India's strategic interests in the region that was signed during the Vajpayee visit was a proposed highway project. Delhi will extend the highway that runs from Chabahar in Iran through Afghanistan into Tajikistan. Delhi's moves with regard to this transport corridor are likely to be watched closely by several countries. The highway starts at the Iranian port of Chabahar, which is close to the Pakistani port of Gwadar that China is helping Pakistan build.
India is not only helping Iran with the construction of the Chabahar port, but also the two are currently constructing the highway from Chabahar into Afghanistan. The India-Iran engagement is said to have irked the US and Israel. The highway will run through Afghanistan, snaking through strongholds of the Northern Alliance and helping India retain its influence here. Under the deal signed in Dushanbe last week, India will help extend this highway into Tajikistan.
Happymon Jacob of the Indian think tank the Observer Research Foundation points out that the proposed highway seeks to balance Chinese engagement in the Central Asian region. Beijing has been focusing its energies on deepening engagement with Kazakhstan, playing an important role in the development of Kazakh oil fields, including those at Uzen, Aktyubinst, Kursangi and Karabagli. Besides, it is expected to construct a 3,000 kilometer gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Xinjiang. "While China tries to engage the Central Asian region and its hydrocarbon resources through Kazakhstan, India's strategy is to engage the region through Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan," points out Jacob.
The Syrian leg of Vajpayee's visit was perhaps the trickiest. Syria is not only on Washington's hit list, but also a sworn enemy of Delhi's new friend, Israel. The Indian prime minister's visit to Syria has come at a time when the latter is under fresh pressure of sanctions from the US. Washington, which has long regarded Syria as a "rogue state" and as a sponsor of terrorism, has accused Damascus of not curbing Palestinian and Lebanese guerrilla groups.
Furthermore, it has held Syria responsible for much of the problems it is facing in Iraq, maintaining that foreign militants fighting the US-led coalition in Iraq enter from Syrian territory. Vajpayee's visit to Syria comes a little over a month after Israel's missile attacks on Syria and around two months after India and Israel announced their new "special relationship" during Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to India. During that visit, India and Israel agreed to jointly combat terrorism. They finalized several defense deals. India has traditionally been a friend of the Arabs and a champion of the Palestinian cause. Not surprisingly, therefore, the growing India-Israeli bonhomie triggered alarm in several Arab capitals.
In Damascus, India signaled that the new closeness with Israel and US notwithstanding, there is no change in Delhi's position on the Palestinian question. Vajpayee assured Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that India was "fully" with the Palestinian cause and that there had been no change in India's position seeking "a quick Israeli withdrawal" from Palestinian cities and other "occupied" territories, including the Golan Heights - the Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the visit, Syria supported the Indian approach to resolution of problems between India and Pakistan, ie through the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999. India and Syria condemned all terrorism, and signed nine agreements covering science and technology, biotechnology, technical cooperation, information technology and services, agriculture and allied sectors.
Washington, which is already peeved with India's refusal to send troops to Iraq, would not have viewed favorably Vajpayee's three-nation tour. For decades, American analysts have grumbled about India's reluctance to support the US when it mattered. Indeed, India's voting record in the UN indicates that rarely has Delhi voted with the Americans, especially on controversial global issues. Without naming the US, Vajpayee made it clear in Moscow, Dushanbe and Damascus that India is not with Washington on Iraq and that it is uncomfortable with unilateral use of force in violation of the UN charter. Vajpayee's overtures to the Syrians and the expression of support to the Palestinian cause would have added salt to the wound.
A section of Indian analysts have criticized the Indian government's compulsive need to irritate the Americans just when things between the two countries are looking up. Others, however, see Vajpayee's trip as a welcome correction of the tilt, albeit small, in India's foreign policy towards the US and Israel. An editorial in the Deccan Herald said that India's foreign policy "must be principled and guided by its own interests rather than shaped by fears of upsetting the Americans. The interaction with the Russians and Syrians was a step in this direction."
Sources in India's Ministry of External Affairs point out that it is necessary for India to clarify to the US as well as to the Arabs that they would need to stand firmly by India on issues of concern to Delhi. India has stood by the Arabs for decades. Yet the Arabs have equivocated on India-Pakistan issues. Similar is the case with the Americans, who have either backed the Pakistanis, or at best done a balancing act between the two countries.
Vajpayee's three-nation visit signals that India is not going to put all its eggs in one basket. Its relations with the US and Israel cannot rule out ties with their enemies or vice versa.
:cool
India revels in new diplomatic offensive
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - The significance of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's trip last week to Russia, Tajikistan and Syria lies as much in the signing of important bilateral agreements as in the message it has sent out to the international community. The visits are a signal that India might be moving closer to the United States and Israel, but it is not about to abandon its old friends.
While reports of Russia's increasing interest in improving ties with Pakistan had caused some concern in India in recent months, Delhi's growing ties with the US have troubled the Russians. The joint declaration signed at the end of Vajpayee's visit to Moscow indicates that the India-Russia relationship remains firmly grounded on common perceptions of global issues.
On terrorism - an issue of critical importance to both countries - India and Russia recorded their "complete identity of views". Moscow expressed full support to India in its fight against terrorism in Kashmir and called on Pakistan "to implement in full its assurances to prevent infiltration of terrorists across the Line of Control" and "to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir as a prerequisite for a purposeful dialogue between the two countries". India reciprocated by expressing support for the Russian action in Chechnya.
Without mentioning the US by name, the two countries "confirmed their opposition to the unilateral use or threat of use of force in violation of the UN Charter" and expressed support for a multipolar world.
Providing substance to the warm ties are 10 agreements that will enhance cooperation in space, science and technology. Russia will assist India in its mission to the moon. Of significance to India's aerospace is a deal under which it will supply six to eight satellites for a European navigation system that the Russians are setting up. Russia will also assist in setting up joint research centers in India - a gas hydrate studies center in Chennai and an earthquake research center in Delhi.
Significant ground was covered during Vajpayee's visit with regard to India's purchase of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. An agreement on the purchase - negotiations have been on since 1995 - is likely to be signed later this month, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov visits Delhi.
Tajikistan, India's nearest central Asian neighbor, was the second halt on Vajpayee's three-nation trip. India's steadily expanding engagement with Tajikistan must be seen in the context of Tajikistan's proximity to Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the energy-rich Central Asian republics.
India and Tajikistan signed a bilateral extradition treaty, agreements to enhance cooperation in defense, information technology etc and an agreement on the setting up a joint working group to combat terrorism.
Reports of the "Indian military base" in Tajikistan dominated Vajpayee's sojourn in Tajikistan. In the run-up to the visit, reports in the media had drawn attention to "India's undeclared military presence" in Tajikistan. A report in the Indian Express described the Ayni air base near Dushanbe as "India's first-ever military base in a foreign country". Citing defense ministry sources, the report said that India is upgrading infrastructure at the Ayni air base and "has plans to station its troops and air platforms in the near future". While both countries denied reports of an Indian military base at Ayni, they admitted that India would be overhauling this dilapidated air base.
Incidentally, Indian and Tajik special forces are said to have held joint military exercises in February this year. India's nominal military presence in Tajikistan is nowhere near that of the Russians and the Americans and is unlikely to bother them. But it has rattled Pakistan, which believes that India is trying to encircle it. Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf apparently raised the issue of India's military presence in Tajikistan when he met his Tajik counterpart Emamoli Rakhmanov early this year at Almaty.
An agreement of significance to India's strategic interests in the region that was signed during the Vajpayee visit was a proposed highway project. Delhi will extend the highway that runs from Chabahar in Iran through Afghanistan into Tajikistan. Delhi's moves with regard to this transport corridor are likely to be watched closely by several countries. The highway starts at the Iranian port of Chabahar, which is close to the Pakistani port of Gwadar that China is helping Pakistan build.
India is not only helping Iran with the construction of the Chabahar port, but also the two are currently constructing the highway from Chabahar into Afghanistan. The India-Iran engagement is said to have irked the US and Israel. The highway will run through Afghanistan, snaking through strongholds of the Northern Alliance and helping India retain its influence here. Under the deal signed in Dushanbe last week, India will help extend this highway into Tajikistan.
Happymon Jacob of the Indian think tank the Observer Research Foundation points out that the proposed highway seeks to balance Chinese engagement in the Central Asian region. Beijing has been focusing its energies on deepening engagement with Kazakhstan, playing an important role in the development of Kazakh oil fields, including those at Uzen, Aktyubinst, Kursangi and Karabagli. Besides, it is expected to construct a 3,000 kilometer gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Xinjiang. "While China tries to engage the Central Asian region and its hydrocarbon resources through Kazakhstan, India's strategy is to engage the region through Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan," points out Jacob.
The Syrian leg of Vajpayee's visit was perhaps the trickiest. Syria is not only on Washington's hit list, but also a sworn enemy of Delhi's new friend, Israel. The Indian prime minister's visit to Syria has come at a time when the latter is under fresh pressure of sanctions from the US. Washington, which has long regarded Syria as a "rogue state" and as a sponsor of terrorism, has accused Damascus of not curbing Palestinian and Lebanese guerrilla groups.
Furthermore, it has held Syria responsible for much of the problems it is facing in Iraq, maintaining that foreign militants fighting the US-led coalition in Iraq enter from Syrian territory. Vajpayee's visit to Syria comes a little over a month after Israel's missile attacks on Syria and around two months after India and Israel announced their new "special relationship" during Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to India. During that visit, India and Israel agreed to jointly combat terrorism. They finalized several defense deals. India has traditionally been a friend of the Arabs and a champion of the Palestinian cause. Not surprisingly, therefore, the growing India-Israeli bonhomie triggered alarm in several Arab capitals.
In Damascus, India signaled that the new closeness with Israel and US notwithstanding, there is no change in Delhi's position on the Palestinian question. Vajpayee assured Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that India was "fully" with the Palestinian cause and that there had been no change in India's position seeking "a quick Israeli withdrawal" from Palestinian cities and other "occupied" territories, including the Golan Heights - the Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the visit, Syria supported the Indian approach to resolution of problems between India and Pakistan, ie through the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999. India and Syria condemned all terrorism, and signed nine agreements covering science and technology, biotechnology, technical cooperation, information technology and services, agriculture and allied sectors.
Washington, which is already peeved with India's refusal to send troops to Iraq, would not have viewed favorably Vajpayee's three-nation tour. For decades, American analysts have grumbled about India's reluctance to support the US when it mattered. Indeed, India's voting record in the UN indicates that rarely has Delhi voted with the Americans, especially on controversial global issues. Without naming the US, Vajpayee made it clear in Moscow, Dushanbe and Damascus that India is not with Washington on Iraq and that it is uncomfortable with unilateral use of force in violation of the UN charter. Vajpayee's overtures to the Syrians and the expression of support to the Palestinian cause would have added salt to the wound.
A section of Indian analysts have criticized the Indian government's compulsive need to irritate the Americans just when things between the two countries are looking up. Others, however, see Vajpayee's trip as a welcome correction of the tilt, albeit small, in India's foreign policy towards the US and Israel. An editorial in the Deccan Herald said that India's foreign policy "must be principled and guided by its own interests rather than shaped by fears of upsetting the Americans. The interaction with the Russians and Syrians was a step in this direction."
Sources in India's Ministry of External Affairs point out that it is necessary for India to clarify to the US as well as to the Arabs that they would need to stand firmly by India on issues of concern to Delhi. India has stood by the Arabs for decades. Yet the Arabs have equivocated on India-Pakistan issues. Similar is the case with the Americans, who have either backed the Pakistanis, or at best done a balancing act between the two countries.
Vajpayee's three-nation visit signals that India is not going to put all its eggs in one basket. Its relations with the US and Israel cannot rule out ties with their enemies or vice versa.
:cool