The Jaswant-Strobe balancing act

Strobe Talbott was the Time magazine correspondent accredited to the State Department in the seventies when Henry Kissinger was the secre...

Strobe Talbott was the Time magazine correspondent accredited to the State Department in the seventies when Henry Kissinger was the secretary of state. By all accounts, he was an outstanding journalist. How would he as a journalist have coped with the degree of secrecy that attends the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott dialogue, now past its eighth round?

Talbott puts his head back and laughs. 8220;I would have done everything I could, obviously, to get a little time with Dr Kissinger. I would also have knocked on some doors in Delhi and hoped that some people on the Indian side of the dialogue would have been forthcoming. But if Dr Kissinger and his Indian counterpart at the time had been really committed to a successful outcome of the discussions, I, as a journalist, would not have succeeded in finding out very much about the details of what was going on. Because this kind of diplomacy on issues that are so complex and so important to both sides really requires a very high degree of confidentiality. MrJaswant Singh and I have developed among other things quite a high level of mutual confidence and trust. We have been through eight rounds of these discussions and I think we are not done yet. But we have made progress and this is because we have been able to strike the right balance between confidentially and some degree of transparency which is necessary, of course, when two great democracies are doing business.8221;

Throughout the hour-long conversation, the US deputy secretary of state, repeatedly reverted to 8220;secrecy8221; regarding 8220;details8221; as being absolutely essential. A public discussion on the intricacies of what was being discussed would 8220;blow it all8221;.

Was he not placing too much of a burden on the Indian Foreign Mi-nistry who would soon be quizzed in Parliament by a whole lot of very nosy opposition leaders, I asked.

Talbott believes Jaswant Singh is 8220;a master at coping with that sort of thing in Parliament8221;. He says he has read transcripts of his exchanges in Parliament on the issue. 8220;Hehas been masterly in the way he has been able to strike a balance between preserving confidentiality necessary for diplomacy and the transparency essential for a democracy.8221;

I quoted to him something that Kissinger had recently said to us after the US-imposed sanctions in retaliation for Pokharan. According to Kissinger, sanctions almost never work; there is no criteria for lifting them; there are 73 countries against which the US is involved in one way or another in imposing sanctions and, according to Dr Kissinger, 8220;this is not a reasonable position for the US to take8221;.

Talbott argues against such a blanket statement. 8220;Sanctions are a variegated instrument of foreign policy 8212; that is when they are effective they can be very effective. In fact, President Clinton has worked quite hard with the US Congress to try to get additional flexibility for the President and the executive on the way sanctions are actually applied so that they are not such a blunt instrument. And, incidentally, thanks to a verystatesmanlike, wise and laudable step that Prime Minister Vajpayee took when he announced at the UN last September India8217;s intent to adhere to the CTBT, President Clinton was able to get additional waiver authority. I have some concrete ideas about how to end sanctions with regard to India and that is one of the things I have been talking to Jaswant Singh about.8221;

Story continues below this ad

What are these concrete steps? Again, that emphasis on secrecy.

8220;I am not going to spell these concrete steps out and I don8217;t think he will either 8212; because he and I see ourselves as building an edifice; we are engaged in a construction project and it is basically the foundation of a new phase of our relationship. In other words, we hope we are dealing with more than just the immediate security issues 8212; it8217;s a work in progress and we are not going to hold the blueprints for everybody to look at8221;. What has in recent rounds consistently embarrassed Talbott and other American interlocutors is mounting confirmation, from American sources, ofChinese collaboration with Islamabad in nuclear and missile technologies.

Did you discuss Sino-Pak nuclear cooperation with Jaswant Singh? 8220;Yes it has been part of the discussion, but I don8217;t think I will take it any further than that.8221;

On persistent questioning he elaborated. 8220;We discussed this subject not only in our dialogue with India but also in our dialogue with Pakistan and our dialogue with China. It is not fair to say that the US has kept mum when it has legitimate reasons for concern of criticism with regard to the policies of the Pakistani government or the Chinese government.8221;

Story continues below this ad

He said 8220;President Clinton did discuss South Asia with the Chinese leaders during his China visit last year.8221; 8220;8230; and, by the way, I would like to be able to say that when he comes to India he would certainly want to talk about matters that are not confined to the South Asian sub-continent.8221;Yes, Talbott is hopeful that should Clinton get off the impeachment hook, there will be sufficient movement in hisdialogue with Jaswant Singh to warrant optimism on a Clinton visit to South Asia.