Moving Closer
How do you spell “Anglosphere?” N, S, S, P:
India and the United States on Monday formally announced the completion of discussions on the Next Stage of Strategic Partnership (NSSP) with both President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh committing themselves to promoting a broad-based strategic partnership.
Addressing a joint press conference at the White House after a one-on-one in camera meeting, President Bush said that both countries were the world’s two great democracies, and had the onerous responsibility of being committed to work together for a better and safer world.
“The Governments of India and United States are working together to safeguard our interests. We are introducing new steps in our defence relationship, recently signed framework. That will help our two nations to achieve our common security objectives. We are working together on terrorism, which will help us protect our people and make the world a safer place. We are also committed to increasing the prosperity of people of India and America alike. We have completed (the process of) Next Steps in Strategic Partnership. Completing this partnership will help us further enhance our cooperation in areas of civil nuclear, civil space, and hi-technology commerce,” Bush said.
Good. I never understood why China got so much more attention than India when India has almost as many people as China and, for all its problems, is a stable democracy with an educated population, less aggressive foreign policy and is part of the Anglosphere.
India didn’t get attention for the U.S. for a long time largely I think because of its close relationship with the USSR during the Cold War — a relationship that made sense given India’s proximity and historical disagreements with China.
This will be a valuable alliance not only in acting as a counter to China but also in the War on Terror. India has long been a victim of radical Muslim terrorism originating mostly from Pakistan.
Good for you for covering India-US relations. It is very significant and much under-reported by the mainstream press, or indeed by anyone. We have reached a new defense agreement, a technology agreement, and now a very rare (for this President) White House “official” dinner for the prime minister (big article in today’s Washington Post) (a “state” dinner in substance but not in name, because the prime minister is not “head of state”). This increases our ability to pressure both Pakistan and China and improves our trade connections with India as well. Another significant geopolitical strategic move by Bush.
It’s about time.
Read somewhere India is projected to outstrip China in population. we need to br friends with the “world’s largest democracy” to counter the “world’s largest inferiority complex with nuclear weapons.”
This seems like a very good idea, mid to long term, however in the short I wonder how this will affect our current situation with Pakistan.
An excellent move. I sincerely hope this will result in a wave of new Indian restaurants.
Doug, you’re probably right. I don’t find your reasons particularly pursuasive (especially considering who China is/was), but that probably was the thinking of government planners. Idiots.
“Bush said that both countries were the world’s two great democracies . . .”
If he really said this, and not that we are “two of the world’s great democracies” or something else not-so-exlusive, then the statement might rightly get some British and other noses out of joint.
I hope (and expect) it’s a mistaken paraphrase.
Using great as in large in size not as in significance or importance. From dictionary.com, Great: Very large in size; Larger in size than others of the same kind; Large in quantity or number; etc.
India is an example of how a country can grow and evolve into a democracy with its own particular flair.
India should always be supported as much as possible, as it provides the perfect counterbalance in the Asian region against potential Chinese aggression. Due to its population size and stable democracy.
Plus it has a honking big army all its own, some top-notch fighter pilots (ask some VERY surprised Eagle pilots) and a sizeable navy. Oh, yeah, and those uranium rocket thingies…
US-India alliance – China oil consumption drop
The world’s two largest democracies have formed an even closer alliance.
I think he meant great in terms of size. Britain is a democracy, but a small one.
Read somewhere India is projected to outstrip China in population. we need to br friends with the “world’s largest democracy” to counter the “world’s largest inferiority complex with nuclear weapons.”
Mike, you’ve got a great talent for boiling things down to the essentials.
*perks up* India is working with us? And it’s expected to get bigger than China? I feel less gloomy already! (But I’ve always had a thing for Indian accents)
Yeah. The thaw in US-India relations of late has been pretty astounding to those of us who recall the 70s and 80s when India leading the so-called ‘Non-aligned movement’, buying most of it’s military hardware from the soviets, and screwing around with socialist economics.
I don’t know exactly what the driving force behind this is, but I don’t think seeing an American president who was willing to use force against jihadis hurt any… India has been dealing with jihadis in Kashmir pretty much since the partition with Pakistan, they have no love at all for those guys.
Colin: “however in the short I wonder how this will affect our current situation with Pakistan.”
Pakistan won’t like it, but I suspect that after 9/11 we made Pakistan an offer they couldn’t refuse: they either work with us against the jihadists or find themselves on the receiving end American military power.
this is great, and pervez will take it because, as mentioned above, he exists on our sufferance.
as for the “surprised” eagle pilots… there wass no surprise whatsoever that they got beat. they got sent there to get beat, to keep will and his friends employed. have to convince congresscritters to buy f22, so need to show weakness against airframes one might see in a conflict situation, as otherwise there is no need for a new air-superirority fighter when you already have full air superirority against everything out there and on the drawing board.
hey, whatever works. i’m a fan of pretty much every weapon system and would rather buy everything and cut off every other government program, but other people have different priorities. crusader would have been a very cool arty system, but non-deployable and useful only in fighting on the german plain. for air force procurement, the answer is that we should buy 3x as much of everything as is currently budgeted (or 1000 additional units, whichever is greater), except for the A-10, where we should buy 10,000 (current procurement being 0)
India is the largest democracy in terms of population, and Britain is the oldest continuously functioning government in the world today, followed by the US. India has been a steady economic partner with the US for some time, and hopefully down the line they will be ‘outsourcing’ jobs in this direction. This military/technology partnership is huge on many levels – apparently too big for the MSM to see or appreciate in detail or context. Notice how friends of the US – Japan, Australia, much of eastern Europe, and now India – form a tidy little ring around China? We’re still hopeful Russia will get its act together and get on the winning team, but in the meantime we’re getting our foot in the door of the middle east with Iraq and Afghanistan. Long term stragegy. From a western POV, the biggest problem with India would be its entrenched caste system, which to us might seem to be the ultimate civil rights violation: pigeonholed from birth. The situation is improving with education and access to information, but it might take generations to undo centuries of social tradition.