It's Time for the U.S. and India to Go Steady
A Logical Partnership
by Stanley A. Weiss

MUMBAI -- Gurinder Chadha's "Bride and Prejudice" is giving American moviegoers their first taste of Bollywood. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical extravaganza "Bombay Dreams" soon hopes to dazzle Indian audiences. But today's real-life blockbuster is the geopolitical melodrama playing out across South Asia - the epic courtship between India and the United States.

Like the marathon musicals for which this city, formerly Bombay, is famous, the Indian-U.S. storyline has been a half-century in the making. During the cold war, Pakistan was the darling of Washington, which saw India as sleeping with the Soviets. Nonaligned India played the chaste heroine preaching nonviolence.

Only after India exploded in a nuclear tantrum in 1998 did Washington start treating New Delhi like an adult. Today, Indian-U.S. relations have matured from that of estranged democracies to engaged partners, and officials in both countries speak breathlessly of being "natural allies."

But as in any Bollywood saga, old flames and new suitors may thwart this blossoming romance. How can Washington and New Delhi realize their dreams of a meaningful long-term relationship?

First, both sides must dump their emotional baggage. India must understand that the American embrace of Pakistan since the Sept. 11 attacks is not true love, but an affair of convenience in the war on terrorism.

At the same time, Washington can be more sensitive to India's legitimate security and economic concerns. By rewarding Islamabad with the status of Major Non-NATO Ally and $1.3 billion in new military hardware (and possibly F-16 fighter aircraft) - which Indian officials warn will be aimed at India, not Al Qaeda - Washington only props up the antidemocratic, anti-American military-mullah complex that runs Pakistan.

K. Subrahmanyam, a former member of India's National Security Council, told me, "I cannot understand when the United States acts against its interests, as it is doing in Pakistan."

Likewise, the United States should resist knee-jerk reactions when India seemingly acts against American interests. The $40 billion natural gas deal recently signed by India, a leading gas importer, and Iran, a top gas exporter, makes perfect sense. Washington should welcome, not fear, plans for an Iranian-Indian pipeline across Pakistan, which would give Tehran and Islamabad economic incentives to behave themselves.

With other suitors vying for New Delhi's affections, Washington can no longer take India for granted. Russia has advocated a "strategic triangle" aligning New Delhi, Moscow and Beijing as a counterweight to the United States.

China and India, historic rivals, recently sat down for their first strategic talks. The visit to India this month by China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, may herald new Chinese-Indian energy cooperation, including joint ventures for petroleum exploration to feed their oil-hungry economies.

It's time for Washington to respect India as the mature, responsible global power it is. Within three decades, India is projected to have the world's third largest economy and more people than China. New Delhi already is flexing its newfound muscle as a reliable ally in the war on terrorism and an indispensable partner in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

If Beijing continues to accelerate the modernization and build-up of its military, as Washington and New Delhi fear, India will be to South Asia what Japan is to East Asia - an indispensable counterbalance to China.

Rather than a marriage of convenience with India, America should seek a "marriage of commitment," according to Ram Narayanan of the advocacy group US-India Friendship. "It is up to the U.S. to say 'yes' and wear the ring on its finger."

President George W. Bush has pledged a strategic partnership with India and should take the plunge, starting with a trip to New Delhi bearing the dowry that would win Indian hearts - American support for an Indian seat on an expanded UN Security Council.

Bush should also breathe new life into bilateral trade, which last year was a mere $21 billion. The U.S.-China economic relationship, by comparison, was last year worth $230 billion.

Building on the recent easing of U.S. export controls on technology for India's space and civilian nuclear programs, Washington and New Delhi should move ahead with cooperation in high-tech trade and missile defense. A presidential pledge that India can count on the U.S. as a reliable supplier would promote the sale of critical defense technologies.

For its part, India must finish what it started in 1991 - letting go of socialist economic policies that stifle innovation and scare off foreign investment. "India needs to unleash the full potential of our English-speaking knowledge economy and attract $15 billion in annual foreign direct investment to increase economic growth," explains Sanjaya Baru, spokesman for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "We will achieve neither unless India is truly open for business."

Singh, who as finance minister championed the economic reforms of the early 1990s, is off to a good start. His first budget proposes major investments in education, modernizing India's colonial-era infrastructure, lowering tariffs, lifting restrictions on foreign ownership and moving ahead with privatization of state-owned companies.

How will this elaborate Indian-American co-production unfold? Don't expect the players in this ensemble to spontaneously burst into song and dance. But with the right direction and some clever choreography, the actors in this drama can fulfill Singh's wish that, "the best is yet to come."