India-US Strategic News and Discussion

[Lalmohan]

the US is by no means in decline. Sure, its got problems, but the sheer scale, depth and economic might of the US is unparalleled. It is not going to go away anytime soon

[ramana]

Pulikeshi, The need of the hour is for India to get rid of those sanctions even if we don't buy such stuff from US. Bush got rid of the NSG sanctions and with the Hyde act has made sure US won't sell and India can't buy from US.

The tech sanctions are a US only issue and lifting them removes the odious post POKI sanctions. This is needed to assure PRC that India is not in the diplomatic doghouse.

It will enable the rest of the countries to do trade in high technology.
India doesn't need anything else but to get rid of the sanctions.

GOI knows what its doing and its playing with the cards it has and not whining. There is quiet confidence which we havent seen in along time. Its the US officials speaking out of turn and thru the lifafas in Indian press.

BTW hats off to CAS Gen V.K. Singh for bringing back the quiet confidence of the IA.

[Fidel Guevara]

I asked the Q about the First Lady's prior "experience" ,in the context of enquiring whether she does the same at home,visiting American brothels and comforting US sex workers.

We have a lot to tell him,about Pak's perfidy,repeated US arming of Pak,which uses these arms against india,India's legitimate role in Afghanistan and the need for NATO and the US to pack up their bags from the sub-continent where they are not required and go home.The true task that must be done is to defang Pak of its N-weapons and restore genuine democracy in that country.

Horrendous US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan have also to be discussed,as if we are to have a "strategic relationship" with the US,then we cannot be a "partner" if the US troops behave like Nazis.

Philip, agree with most of your points, except the excerpts above. The "sex worker" angle in the US is a bit different, most of the CSW in the US are in the business to support a drug habit or some other equally noxious reason, but rarely sold off to a brothel at a young age...

On Af-Pak, the ever-looming threat of NATO action on Pak is what keeps the jernails on their toes, plus it acts as an outlet for jehadi emotions...if an abdul has to pick up an AK47, he now has the choice of crossing the defended LOC or the undefended Durand line.

The "horrendous" US crimes are no different from what all powerful countries have done since time immemorial, so taking up this topic seems like a throwback to the "Gandhian India" image, an image which the hawks have only contempt for.

[ramana]

X-posting
R. Vaidya garu's article

Since it has Pakistan angle posted here--


Mr Obama, do you have real business to talk with us?DNA / R Vaidyanathan / Tuesday, October 26, 2010 3:10 IST
The next two weeks will be full of atmospherics and inanities linked to the visit of US president Barack Obama. Indians are known to derive satisfaction from symbolism rather than substance. When Diwali was supposedly celebrated by George Bush’s White House — a celebration in which the US president did not participate — we went into raptures. When Rajan Zed of Nevada was called to chant Vedic hymns at a Congressional opening, we were ecstatic. Similarly, when Obama visits India next month, we will drool over Michelle buying Kanjeevaram sarees or Obama savouring a paratha at a Delhi dhaba — or some such meaningless events. There is a move to take Michelle to the Red Light areas of Mumbai to get a feel of “inclusive” growth. Imagine Gursharan Kaur being paraded in Soho in London as part of her itinerary. Sikhs are pleading with Obama to visit the Golden Temple, even if he merely wears a baseball cap to cover his head.
This is how we barter away our self-respect, even as our civil aviation minister Praful Patel is charged a hefty free (£480) for using the lounge at Heathrow airport. Our high commissioner in London had to hurriedly pay for it. In India, even head clerks and deputy assistant undersecretaries of the Anglo-Saxon establishments command red carpet treatment and free VVIP lounges at airports. When Obama arrives, he is going to come as a wounded tiger from a declining empire. His party of change would, by then, have lost its last dime in the Congressional elections to be held on November 2. He could well end up as a one-term president. When American presidents are hurt at home, they try to show off abroad. Nixon made his China trip when his fortunes were going downhill back home. Clinton did mischief in J&K and Bush in Iraq.
Democratic presidents come across as more sanctimonious humbugs and self-righteous compared to Republicans. The latter just bother about business; the former want to be seen as backing causes like human rights — as long as it is done abroad.What should our agenda be with Obama? First, we should ask him to remove every Indian entity which is on the banned export list of the US. Second, if he even mentions Kashmir, we should request him to carry on to Indonesia — his next stop. We should recognise Bangladesh as the successor country to a united Pakistan because of its size and the number of members in it had in parliament before the break-up. If at all anyone has a say in Kashmir, Bangladesh as the successor entity has a more legitimate case, Obama should be told.
Third, we should insist on the need to split Pakistan into many more countries in the interests of world peace. Pakistan’s army is the world’s terror central and a constant threat to world peace. The David Headley saga reveals that US intelligence and enforcement agencies such as the FBI, CIA and DEA have been infiltrated and compromised by the Pakistani ISI and its creations like the LeT. The billions given to appease Pakistan will not help world peace and it will only increase global terror. Hillary Clinton says her heart is in Pakistan and one wishes her a hale and healthy heart. We should remember that her husband, through Robin Raphael, was instrumental in creating the Hurriyat in the Kashmir Valley.
The fourth point is that India should not bother with the talk-shop called the UN Security Council. It has lost its purpose and role. It helps some Indian government bureaucrats to have untaxed pensions. The only important member is China and we can deal with it directly. Becoming a permanent member of the UNSC is not exactly a big payoff for us. Many UN agencies are a joke. What is one to make of the fact that Saudi Arabia and Libya are on the human rights panels, and Pakistan is heading the International Atomic Energy Agency (no doubt, by rotation), after proliferating nuclear weapons and sponsoring terror.
The fifth point we need to tell Obama is that India will not look at China through the US’s lenses. We will deal with China on our terms. We have no need to play sidekick to the US when it deals with China. A British political leader during World War II is reported to have said that Britain would fight the Germans to the last Indian. We do not want to be in the same situation with regard to US-China conflicts.The sixth point is that any enlarged scope for US companies to do business in India should be linked to India getting unrestricted access to the US markets for onshore and offshore software services, including visas for our professionals. Every additional Coke bottle consumed in India or insurance policy sold should be dependent on how the US puts Pakistan on leash. We need to unashamedly and unequivocally link commerce with US pressure on Pakistan on terrorism.
Declining empires do listen to rising powers if they want market access. We need to ask Obama to address our real concerns instead of getting carried away with all the soft praise he may shower on us. We have to grow up.

URL of the article:
Mr Obama Do you have real business to talk with us?

[ramana]

X-posting Amit's comments:

Some parts of this very important interview are relevant here.

Shekhar Gupta: The earlier jihad, good jihad, if I may say so.

Dr K Subrahmanyam: And the jihadism has blown up on them (meaning the US). For 30 years, they helped China become the factory of the world and China’s advance today is now challenging the US. And therefore, to a considerable extent, the US has turned itself against the mistakes it had perpetrated. And so far as we were concerned, we always admired the US and from the very beginning, Nehru went and addressed the US Congress, in which he pledged that if freedom was in peril and endangered, India will not stay neutral. And therefore, we didn’t have any problem in becoming friendly with the US.

Shekhar Gupta: But could we have nuanced our earlier Afghanistan policy better? In the ‘70s and the ‘80s?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: No, we tried our best. After all, when the Soviets moved into Afghanistan, which was a result of the provocation by the Pakistanis and the Americans, Indira Gandhi sent special envoys to Zia-ul-Haq—Swaran Singh went there, then Narasimha Rao went there. We tried our best to reassure the Pakistanis. But they weren’t looking for reassurance. They wanted to become a nuclear weapon power, which is the price the Americans had to pay in order to get Pakistani support. They had to look away from the Chinese arm in that. And once the Pakistanis got nuclear weapons, they didn’t want to just drop it on anybody, which is what the western strategists talk about. The Pakistanis got the derivative of nuclear weapons, which was terrorism. And they are using the derivative terrorism not only against US but against the US, UK and Europe.

Shekhar Gupta: Using the backup power of nuclear weapons?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: Deterrent power gets them the shield. And therefore, they are able to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

Shekhar Gupta: Now my second question, again looking ahead. You say Pakistan has been successful so far. Where do you see Pakistan with this strategy, five years or ten years from now?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: They’re playing with a venomous snake. And there is no doubt about it that one of these days, the snake is going to bite them. And the Pakistanis are going to pay a high price, when the various jihadi organisations are going to turn on the Pakistani state and the Pakistani army. One of them has already—the Pakistani Taliban. But it is only a question of time when others also do.

Of course what K Subrahmanyam Sir says is nothing new on this thread. But it's nice to see it being articulated in a mainstream paper by someone of his stature. Hopefully people will sit up an read.

OT but I'd like to add another interesting snippet here:

Shekhar Gupta: My third and last question. If you read accounts of Nehru’s conversations with Eisenhower, in one of those, Eisenhower is very worried about what the Chinese are doing in Korea...the Chinese have taken prisoners and he’s very angry about that. And Nehru makes a very interesting and prescient statement—he tells him not to be neurotic about communism. He says that the seeds of destruction lie within the ideology of communism. But for Nehru to say that in the early ‘50s was prescient.

Dr K Subrahmanyam: In a sense, Nehru was prescient. Nehru started cultivating the Soviet Union mainly because even in the early ‘50s, he saw that the Soviet Union and China will not get along with each other and therefore, if we have to have security vis-a-vis China, we had to cultivate the Soviet Union.

Shekhar Gupta: So Nehru was not an ideological fool?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: Nehru was perhaps one of the most pragmatic and realist politicians.

[ramana]

I was talking on Saturday to some members about this very aspects pointed out by KS garu.

By re-Arabising Islam, Zbig and his cohort aroused the historic scourge of Europe without understanding the Bible saying" Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind!"

Political Islam was on decline and becoming quiesant and was suddenly given a shot of steroids and re-Arabised. In other words returned to its tribal roots. The civilsing apsect of Persio-Arab, the Ottomon phase and even the syncretic Sufi phase were all suppressed to create one grand re-Arabised tribal narrative under the expert guidance of the US. All the indoctrination materials for the Afghan mujhedeen were prepared in the US. US was a willing partner in Zia's Islamization project. What they thought was a toothless python morphed into a mamba.

And the backwater PRC was industrialised and re-armed and morphed from a benign dragon into cross species transformation of an alligator-dragon or alli-dragon as I call. By allowing the PRC to proliferate nukes without censure and accumulate US $ reserves in the massive amounts, the US has become tied down like Gulliver.

Some deluded hawks in US think they can manage the situation for after all it was their creations. But could the good Dr. Frankenstein manage his creation?

These are the two scourges which are the American nemesis currnetly and they are in cohort.

So even for its own needs it has to befriend India. And what India does has to be in its own interests.
---------------

Mort read this:

FB Ali on Af-Pak

A "we've got America by the ...." post by retd. Brig. F.B. Ali.

[Mort Walker]

Off topic: Although Nehru was pragmatic on many issues, he was far from perfect in dealings with the US. If you read JFK's notes released a couple of decades ago, he was more worried about Nehru having an affair with Jackie than US-India relations. JFK must have got wind of Nehru's affair with Edwina.

[ramana]

OT too: Have you seen commomerative pics of Jackie's life? In a a book of 100 pages there are 4 pages of her with JLN and even after his death with Mrs. G. So the worry was real.

[vera_k]

Dr K Subrahmanyam: In a sense, Nehru was prescient. Nehru started cultivating the Soviet Union mainly because even in the early ‘50s, he saw that the Soviet Union and China will not get along with each other and therefore, if we have to have security vis-a-vis China, we had to cultivate the Soviet Union.

Shekhar Gupta: So Nehru was not an ideological fool?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: Nehru was perhaps one of the most pragmatic and realist politicians.

My assessment is that this is part of the obligatory Nehru-Gandhi ass-kissing that GoI officials have to do. If Nehru was so prescient about the threat from China, what explains the neglect of the armed forces in the pre-1962 period?

[ramana]

Do you know the bank balance after 1947? JLN's larger then life image was to gain time for growing the economy. His first priority was to grow agricluture which was the First Five year plan. He would have continued till Mao told him he was going for the bomb. JLN changed the Second Five year plan from Agriculture to Science and Technology and laid foundation for POKI.

PRC did its1962 act before India had modernised when they saw an opportunity due to the Cuban crisis. The proof is the rapid withdrawl in most areas except where it mattered for them.

I have my views about JLN but one has to temper it with reality.

About non-alignment it was a conscious policy to be equi-distant from the two powers to further Indian interests at tha time. After FSU collapsed it lost its premise.

Foster Dulles wanted a lot more from India which would have exchanged British masters for distant American controllers. It would have been recolonization. Since TSP never really fought the British they had no problem in submitting back to colonisation. We can see where they are now. The jihadi sepoys for US.

[vera_k]

Of course, this is the reasonable explanation to fit the facts. Why is the 1962 war report not declassified if it could be explained so well?

[ramana]

When time comes all will be revealed. Even when NDA was in power they didn't declassify so it has some relvance to national security.

[vera_k]

The NDA did not carry forward prosecution for Bofors corruption either. Relevance to national security is not the only possible reason for their circumspection.

[ramana]

Whatever. We can pursue that elsewhere.

[Thomas Kolarek]

Dr K Subrahmanyam: In a sense, Nehru was prescient. Nehru started cultivating the Soviet Union mainly because even in the early ‘50s, he saw that the Soviet Union and China will not get along with each other and therefore, if we have to have security vis-a-vis China, we had to cultivate the Soviet Union.

Shekhar Gupta: So Nehru was not an ideological fool?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: Nehru was perhaps one of the most pragmatic and realist politicians.

My assessment is that this is part of the obligatory Nehru-Gandhi ass-kissing that GoI officials have to do. If Nehru was so prescient about the threat from China, what explains the neglect of the armed forces in the pre-1962 period?

- Nehru Uncle foolishly accepted Tibet annexation by China [Foolish Nehru supported Mao’s takeover of Tibet in 1950-51], which till now is causing trouble to our Arunachal Pradesh (which the chinese call as South Tibet).
- Nehru had neglected the armed forces and interfered with them in the past to prevent them from taking over all of Kashmir. He foolishly took the K-problem to the UN Security Council and agreed to a plebiscite and Article 370.
- Nehru’s supposed refusal to accept the accession of Nepal is going to cause us much more trouble in days to come.

[Prem]

GE, Reliance Set Turbine Deal ( nazrana)
Contract comes ahead of Obama's India trip, which could gin up funds for more projects
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 90968.html

General Electric Co. landed a major gas-turbine contract with India's Reliance Power on Monday, as U.S. and Indian officials scramble to sort out a recent law that threatens a landmark deal on nuclear energy.GE, based in Fairfield, Conn., was tapped to supply $750 million of turbine equipment for a 2,400-megawatt expansion of the Samalkot power plant in India's Andhra Pradesh state.
The award comes ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to India early next month. U.S. and Indian officials are in intense discussions to salvage the nations' historic civil nuclear-energy agreement, which was announced in 2005 but

[Mauli]

Colgate Accused of Stealing Thousand-Year-Old Toothpaste

Colgate, the world’s largest producer of toothpaste, patented a toothcleaning powder in the hope that it would take the multibillion-dollar Indian oral hygiene market by storm.

However, Indian activists claim that the patent is bogus because the ingredients -- including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint - - have been used for the same purpose for hundreds, “if not thousands,” of years on the subcontinent.

The dispute is likely to become a test case for who owns India’s folk medicines -- a repository potentially worth billions.

The American household goods giant was granted the patent in the U.S. in June for what it claimed was a groundbreaking “red herbal dentifrice.” The patent, the Indian activists allege, is the latest act of “biopiracy” -- whereby Western corporations plunder techniques, plants or genes used in the emerging world for centuries, for commercial profit.

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/of ... hpaste-ncx

[ramana]

My god they "patented" Nanjangud tooth powder! Next it will be the neem twigs!

[Paul]

Dr K Subrahmanyam: In a sense, Nehru was prescient. Nehru started cultivating the Soviet Union mainly because even in the early ‘50s, he saw that the Soviet Union and China will not get along with each other and therefore, if we have to have security vis-a-vis China, we had to cultivate the Soviet Union.

Shekhar Gupta: So Nehru was not an ideological fool?

Dr K Subrahmanyam: Nehru was perhaps one of the most pragmatic and realist politicians.

My assessment is that this is part of the obligatory Nehru-Gandhi ass-kissing that GoI officials have to do. If Nehru was so prescient about the threat from China, what explains the neglect of the armed forces in the pre-1962 period?

JLN may not have had all the pieces of the puzzle together to ward off the threat from PRC. partly due to the advice he was getting from his advisors. He was well aware of jealousy dating from Bandung in 1955 and was hopeful of buying time until modernization was in full swing. This policy was unsuccessfully tried before by Stalin with Germany, however Deng managed to buy peace for 20-30 years with the same policy and it paid dividends for PRC.

Military prep was on, the army position in Ladakh was increased to a Brigade early as 1959. This time INC is dtermined not to be taken unawares, which explains why the AP, Sikkim area is swarming with 100K+ troops even before the supporting infrastructure is put into place.

[V_Raman]

what if the PLAN is to take over A&N?

[Raja Bose]

My god they "patented" Nanjangud tooth powder! Next it will be the neem twigs!

oh, they tried to patent Neem too and Haldi and Basmati....list goes on. GoI orgs like CSIR have full-time staff dedicated to fighting these. Sadly a lot of the times, the "inventors" of these fraudulent patents are Indians (by birth at least).

[Cosmo_R]

^^^"JLN may not have had all the pieces of the puzzle together to ward off the threat from PRC. "

FWIW:

"The Kashmir war saved the Indian Army from being scrapped. Sounds strange, but a biography of Major General A A 'Jick' Rudra of the Indian Army by Major General D K 'Monty' Palit claims so.

According to the book - General Rudra: His service in three Armies and two World Wars - Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru blew his top when Lt General Sir Robert Lockhart, the first commander-in-chief of India took a strategic plan for a Government directive on defence policy.

"Shortly after Independence, General Lockhart as the Army chief took a strategic plan to the prime minister, asking for a Government directive on the defence policy. He came back to Jick’s office shell-shocked," a newspaper quotes the book as saying.

"When asked what happened, he replied, 'The PM took one look at my paper and blew his top. Rubbish! Total rubbish! We don’t need a defence plan. Our policy is ahimsa (non-violence). We foresee no military threats. Scrap the army! The police are good enough to meet our security needs’," the newspaper further quotes the book.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/194748-kashm ... 211-3.html

Again, FWIW.

[svinayak]

Lt. Gen. Cariappa

After getting freedom, a meeting was organized to select
the first General of the Indian Army.
Jawahar Lal Nehru was heading that meeting.
Leaders and Army officers were discussing to whom
this responsibility should be given.

In between the discussion Nehru said,
"I think we should appoint a British officer
as a General of Indian Army
as we don't have enough experience to lead the same."

Everybody supported Nehru because if the
PM was suggesting something,
how could they not agree?

But one of the army officers abruptly said,
"I have a point, sir."

Nehru said, "Yes, gentleman. You are free to speak."

He said ,"You see, sir, we don't have enough experience to lead a nation too,
so shouldn't we appoint a British person as first PM of India?"

The meeting hall suddenly went quiet.

Then, Nehru said,
"Are you ready to be the first General of the Indian Army ?"

He got a golden chance to accept the offer
but he refused the same and said,
"Sir, we have a very talented army officer,
my senior, Lt. Gen. Cariappa,
who is the most deserving among us."

The army officer who raised his voice against the PM was
Lt. General Nathu Singh Rathore,the 1st Lt. General of the Indian Army.

That is the professionalism and character the military was once made of .................

[Thomas Kolarek]

Any one can guess the # of US Offshore Military bases ?
700 (some accounted and some unaccounted)
Am sure they continuously need to bankrupt many nations to maintain it.
I wish they hand over one base to India - Diego Garcia as part of strategic dialogue. It will make it easy for India to break the so called String of Pearls. Well we are free to dream

[Christopher Sidor]

Of course, this is the reasonable explanation to fit the facts. Why is the 1962 war report not declassified if it could be explained so well?

Certain countries gave us support or lack of support from certain countries in the 1962 war is one reason. The other reason is the fact it contains some sensitive info regarding our defense, like why we never used our air force to bomb the Chinese troops. Some decisions that we took, which would called into question the competence of our various leaders, civilian and military.

But the debacle of 1962 cannot be just explained by the above mentioned facts. In the years preceding 1962 ahinsa or non-violence was the ideology of our nascent country. We believed that the world war was the last war that human kind would fight and the nukes had made future wars all but irrelevant or impossible to wage. Both of these were misconceptions for which JLN paid the ultimate price, death due to heart attack. He did die a broken man.
Added to it was the gut wrenching partition, which saw some 20 million people displaced and the corresponding economic and financial loss. We were in no position to pay attention to our armed forces.

[Philip]

Shiv Aroor has just revealed on telly that the C-130J Hercules transports will come without a long list of key eqpt. because of our reticence in signing the various agreements with the US.I said the same thing about the P-8,that all we are getting is the equivalent of an empty Boeing 737.People laughed then,but this is the reality.In both deals we are getting "shafted",while the bsame does not happen when pak gets weapon systems! We are getting nothing "high-tech" from the US and the CoAS has said that it makes no difference to our capability whether we sign on or not,thus diplomatically advocating that a refusal to sign would be the better option.The CNS has also expressed open reservations about FMS acquisitions being "heavily skewed" in favour of the vendor.

[abhishek_sharma]

India is not tilting towards US, says PM

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 819668.cms

[Philip]

"The guilty flee when no man pursueth"..Dr.Singh's statements! However,his words echo the belief that he is better suited to being the Finance Minister of India than PM.For PM one needs a man who walks tall .never letting India be trated as a lackey neo-colonial enntity,and is bold enough to take hard decisions especially those concerning India's security.

[abhishek_sharma]

Corporate India wants Obama to remove protectionist measures

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Indust ... 852405.ece

It has said that from 2009 to 2010, various bills and clauses have been passed by the U.S. Administration, which have irked global industry members and posed a threat of retaliatory trade wars.

Topping the list is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of February 2009, which requires that all the iron and steel for infrastructure projects be produced in U.S..

Since Iron & Steel rank among India’s top exports to U.S.A, CII has said that the country will be adversely affected as a result of this protectionist provision.

Besides, the Act also requires that the uniforms, used by employees managing security at all American airports, be made in America.

In Indian exports to the U.S., textiles rank second and account for over 21 per cent of all export commodities

CII has also said that India has attracted the second highest number of anti-dumping cases from the U.S. after China and U.S. has levied 20 anti-dumping cases on Indian goods during 2000-2009.

[joshvajohn]

India signs CSC on nuclear damages
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 821174.cms

Now I hope things are clear for India and US to implement the agreement that they made. I also think US companies think of their business in investing peaceful nuclear energy cooperation.


India eyes $11bn US fighter jets
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ee4c0a16-df9d ... abdc0.html


India can buy the US jets while it can cooperate with Russians on fifth generation fighters and in other investments. This is essential for the protection of the country from multiple threats from her borders.

Obama’s visit, India’s hopes
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/columnis ... 18292.html

If US strategically think of cooperating and collaborating with India then it is essential to go ahead in this way. Pakistan cannot change its attitude towards India or towards US or towards China in trying to destroy all non-Islamic states. Pakistan itself is on the verge of destruction because of the jihadis one against the other. But US cannot try to satisfy Pakistan and also India. Pakistan can strategicall be a place to fight against Talibans but India can be strategic partner in business and also in terms of countering Islamic influence in this part of the world. Also Without India US cannot make any decision in Asia as India' opinion is very much counted in Asia during the war. US has to make up its mind and convey it clearly to Pakistan that their collaboration with India is as much important as their work with Pakistan in their war against terror and also Pakistan needs to be clear of any of the terror attempts against any nation in the name of Islamic Jihad or liberation of particular people. Things can be settled only through dialogue and engagment and not through threat of nuclear arsenal and war.

Factbox: Top issues during Obama's India visit
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69O1XO20101025

It should also be made clear that no one should be a threat to the other in terms of nation state. China looks at India as a emerging power which Chinese red army wants to keep controlled. By encroaching into India china wants to keep the pressure. India needs to work out her own plans to maintain counter balance with China and also with Pakistan from their threats. In order to do this India has to work closely with US and Russia. For this India needs both of them strategically without trying to encroach into CHina or into Pakistan nor being a threat to them. But it is essential to protect our and our partners interests in their investments and other economic cooperations. India should consider granting autonomy to Kashmir within their constitution and also some more power to states including Nagaland. This will solve many problems and issues for a long terms for a democratic country like India. This will also smoothen relationship with any democratic country including China when they become democratic and even with Pakistan when they get out of their own terror.

Obama's Mumbai stay recognition of India's economic power
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... 820364.cms

US eyes India's bigger role in Asia
http://world.globaltimes.cn/americas/20 ... 86485.html

[Philip]

As an aside,the latest Newsweek has a pice about local issues being the concern of almost all Yanquis especially in the run up to the forthcoming elections.Consequently,foreign policy issues have nosedived,and the US is displaying an old "rubberband" tendencey,where after heavy foreign policy matters,they collapse back to local items.As one wit out it,Yanks ask not,"where's Osama this morning",has changed into,"where's my job this morning?"

The Mess-iah therefore will be coming to India to gather unto himself,the "tribute" of the Yanqui religion's most ardent disciple,Dr.Singh of the ManMohan clan.This tribute will be in billions of dollarsworth of orders for Yanqui arms and weapon systems,that however will not include sensitive eqpt.While we will be buying its jets both for the LRMP role and the medium and heavy transport role,the birds will contain the equivalent technology of the humble tonga! He is looking at this visit to India,to be "
sold" to his disciples and camp followers back home,weakning in their faith.He needs to trumpet his successes in India at preserving jobs at Boeing's C-17 plant and elsewhere in the US so that he can return as a conquering hero..

[Lalmohan]

philip, just curious... did manmohan abuse you in junior school or something?

[joshvajohn]

World has enough space for growth ambitions of India, China: PM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 821318.cms

[ramana]

Philip, Those equipmt are for joint ops with US. And India doesn't see any such role. Hence its OK. BTW try to separate the wheat from chaff in the lifafa articles. Its very important that GOI doesn't send the wrong signals to PRC at this time.
US wants to send signal India is in defacto alliance. Thats waht all those negotiations are for. Having allowed PRC prolifeartion which endangers India they want India ot be their sepoys while bailing them out.

Aroor can stuff it.

[Lalmohan]

all that jointness comes at another price, if you're locked into unkil's C4I systems, you are at their mercy. you can't get any others, and you are then also controllable in many senses by unkil
clearly not what we want
i don't see how the US can win MMRCA under these circumstances

[Altair]

Any one can guess the # of US Offshore Military bases ?
700 (some accounted and some unaccounted)
Am sure they continuously need to bankrupt many nations to maintain it.
I wish they hand over one base to India - Diego Garcia as part of strategic dialogue. It will make it easy for India to break the so called String of Pearls. Well we are free to dream

We have our share of listening posts.We dont need charity.

[SriSri]

We have our share of listening posts.We dont need charity.

If charity is a free military base, I'll take it.

[Prem]

I wish they hand over one base to India - Diego Garcia as part of strategic dialogue. It will make it easy for India to break the so called String of Pearls. Well we are free to dream

We have our share of listening posts.We dont need charity.

Inn Managing China Threat dhaga,There is map of Indian listening posts in India's ocean .

[Prem]

Though not related to India ..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/2 ... 74543.html
Nuclear Missile Equipment Failure Disrupts 50 ICBMs

WASHINGTON — An equipment failure disrupted communication between 50 nuclear missiles and the launch control center at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming over the weekend, an Air Force spokesman said Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Todd Vician said the break occurred early Saturday and lasted less than one hour. The White House was briefed about the failure Tuesday morning.There was no evidence of foul play, and the Air Force never lost the ability to launch the missiles, officials said.The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles are part of the 319th Missile Squadron stockpiled at Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, where 150 ICBMs are located. The failure affected 50 of them, or one-ninth of the U.S. arsenal. ICBMs at Air Force bases in Montana and North Dakota were not affected.

[Mort Walker]

TSA Conducts Theft - http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/michael-ar ... 122&page=2
Two Transportation Safety Administration employees, including a supervisor, have been arrested for stealing cash from handbags of women returning to India. From 2002 to 2010, they stole $700 a day!

One victim allegedly had $5,000 in cash that she was taking to India for a relative, taken out of her handbag during a search. The men often targeted an Air India flight that left Newark's Terminal B at 6:20 p.m. "They were leaving the country with our money."

I'll bet this is going on at several large airports across the US.