USA may lift sanctions against India

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (PTI) — The incoming Bush administration has given enough indications that it might review and lift the post-Pokhran sanctions imposed against India.

Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing yesterday, US Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell said he would see whether it was time to move forward to remove all remaining sanctions against India and consult his colleagues on the issue.

Describing India as a country that would emerge as the most powerful and populous, he said, “We should engage more broadly with India, do what we can to restrain their nuclear programme and also help them with economic development.”

Mr Powell, the first black American to be nominated Secretary of State, said the Bush administration should deal more wisely with India, keeping in view its vast potential in the Indian Ocean and its periphery.

“India is a country that should grow more and more focused in the lens of our foreign policy. We need to work harder and more consistently with India ... while not neglecting out friends in Pakistan,” he said.

Regretting the trigger-happy attitude of Congress members regarding sanctions, he said there were “too many sanctions against too many countries” and pledged to review all of them.

Every sanction must have a “sunset clause” at the end of which it should automatically cease to be in force or be renewed, he said.

Mr Powell also indicated that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty would not be brought up in the next session of the Congress.

On Bush administration’s policy towards China, he said: “A strategic partner China is not, but neither is it our inevitable and implacable foe.

“China is a competitor and a potential regional rival as also a trading partner willing to cooperate in areas such as Korea, where our strategic interests overlap. China is all of these things, but China is not an enemy and our challenge is to keep it that way,” he said.

Mr Bill Clinton had hailed China as a “strategic partner” who played a “positive role” in South Asia.

Referring to Taiwan and the one-China policy, he said the USA had long acknowledged that there was only one China.

“In that respect Taiwan is a part of China. How the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan resolve the differences in interpretation of that view is up to them, so long as military force is not one of the methods used,” Mr Powell said.

He also indicated that the US National Missile Defence Sheild would not be shelved despite opposition from China and Russia.