A friendly waive

The fragments of a red carpet to be rolled out on US President Bill Clinton8217;s forthcoming visit to New Delhi are slowly being stitched into place. His decision to waive all the economic sanctions imposed after the Pokharan nuclear tests has given a fresh impetus to an increasingly cordial bilateral engagement which is still viewed with a measure of suspicion 8212; due as much to a lingering hangover of the cold war as to doubts about Washington8217;s sympathies for Islamabad8217;s agenda. These concerns will in part be assuaged by the fact that a vast chunk of the corresponding sanctions imposed on Pakistan during the subcontinent8217;s nuclear summer last year will continue. The two sanctions against Pakistan which Clinton has waived relate to commercial lending and agricultural credits.

While New Delhi has wisely welcomed the waiver by reiterating that the sanctions has in any case been unwarranted, they are bound to have a salubrious effect on External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Deputy Secretary of State StrobeTalbott8217;s negotiations in mid-November. While their deliberations on the two countries8217; security frameworks had been moving apace, and the Indian government had voiced its intent to forge a political consensus on signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT, the American Senate8217;s refusal to ratify it has added a new variable to the negotiations. Though New Delhi has declared that it would not prevent the entry into force of the CTBT, the prospect of a rethink by China and Russia has changed the coordinates of the discussion. Yet, the new cosiness, with the suddenly frantic to-ing and fro-ing between the two capitals, should facilitate a more meaningful economic cooperation. American Energy Secretary Bill Richardson8217;s visit this week has only spotlighted one sector. Still, with the millennium negotiations under the World Trade Organisation coming up next month, India would expect its exertions on the CTBT to be reciprocated with a certain understanding on its economic compulsions.

Yet, in India progressin relations with the United States will ultimately be assessed in strategic terms, specifically Washington8217;s pronouncements on Kashmir and cross-border terrorism. American State Department officials have called upon the new dispensation in Islamabad to retreat from the Line of Control and stop indulging in cross-border terrorism. This is welcome. But the lonely superpower, presiding over the global war against the forces of darkness, must make evident its sincerity. Washington8217;s compulsions to engage with the Pervez Musharraf regime are clear, but fostering a deeper Indo-US partnership must address New Delhi8217;s long harboured unease over any attempt to accord India and Pakistan an equivalence of sorts. Indeed, a liberal give and take is in order. India would be unrealistic to deny Washington8217;s leverage in the post-Cold War international order; yet it would be equally justified in demanding sensitivity to the debilitating destruction wrought over the years by Pakistan8217;s persistent support to terroristendeavours.