Rice: Our Opportunity with India

[Ancalagon the Black]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200978.html

Our Opportunity With India

By Condoleezza Rice

Excerpts:

The week before last President Bush concluded a historic agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation with India, a rising democratic power in a dynamic Asia. This agreement is a strategic achievement: It will strengthen international security. It will enhance energy security and environmental protection. It will foster economic and technological development. And it will help transform the partnership between the world's oldest and the world's largest democracy.

Aspiring proliferators such as North Korea or Iran may seek to draw connections between themselves and India, but their rhetoric rings hollow. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism that has violated its own commitments and is defying the international community's efforts to contain its nuclear ambitions. North Korea, the least transparent country in the world, threatens its neighbors and proliferates weapons. There is simply no comparison between the Iranian or North Korean regimes and India.

[SkinsNumberOne]

A better relationship between the U.S. and India just makes a lot of sense in the current political and economic climate.

China is now the superpower that the US finds itself most at odds with in that region, with differences in political systems and severe ideological differences (e.g. Nepal, Taiwan).

With no Soviet Union anymore, the U.S. does not have to support Pakistan at India's expense (historically, the U.S.S.R and India were allies as a counterweight to the U.S. and Pakistan relationship).

This has been a long time coming, for the world's most powerful democracy to better its relationship with the world's largest democracy.

This can also hopefully increase the likelihood of peace between India and Pakistan.

The only reason I wasn't a big fan of parts of The World is Flat was because I thought a lot of it was pretty obvious (despite what some isolationists might believe). The reality of that evolution is all the more reason for strengthening ties between the two countries.

[Mr. S]

fine by me, glad the administration is finally taking steps towards building ties with a nation for once. If they should build ties with any nation of the area, it probably should be India, I just hope this doesnt decrease ties with China though.