M A I N   N E W S

US warships being refuelled in India, admits Blackwill
Rajeev Sharma and Gaurav Choudhury
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 17
The USA today acknowledged for the first time that its warships were being refuelled in Chennai and Mumbai conveying the solid pyramid base on which “the Indo-US strategic relations are now standing.”

In his historic speech which he referred to as “my final speech as US Ambassador to India”, Mr Robert D Blackwill made this candid admission at a function organised by the CII here. In the speech “The Future of US-India Relations”, Mr Blackwill gave numerous examples of how the military-to-military relations as well as exchanges on sensitive spheres like nuclear, biological and chemical hardware between the two countries had grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.

The Ambassador pointed out that the two countries now have at least one joint military exercise or engagement each month covering a wide range such as special operations against terrorists, maritime interdiction, and air-borne assault. In the same breath, he specifically mentioned that in June and July 2002 Indian naval ships Sukanya and Sharda conducted escort patrols for American ships through the Malacca Straits in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

This is the first time that a senior American functionary like Mr Blackwill has publically acknowledged and lauded the role of the Indian armed forces in support of the American war against terror. Mr Blackwill remarked: “ Knowing what they will be up against if they had to deal with the Indian Navy, the pirates sensibly stayed away. With American warships now routinely refuelling in Chennai and Mumbai, we saw last September the largest ever US-India naval exercise. We are in the planning stages for a fighter aircraft exchange.”

The American Ambassador’s policy statement today has sent the adrenalin high in the Indian diplomatic and security establishments, coming as it does on the heels of the Vajpayee government’s rejection of the American request for sending Indian troops to Iraq and publication of a news story in a national daily saying that Indian Ambassador to US Lalit Mansingh was taken to task by the State Department.

Mr Blackwill was categoric in his assertion that the transformation of Indo-US relations “will not be affected in the slightest by this particular outcome of India’s governmental democratic processes”. The US envoy made it clear in an interactive session that there were no “residues” or “aftermath” of India’s decision on the Iraq issue.

The Ambassador pointed out that in the immediate aftermath of the Pokhran II nuclear test explosions by India in May, 1998, the talks between Washington and New Delhi had been reduced to “dialogue of the deaf”. In contrast, now the situation was that the USA was no longer fixating on India’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

“... no longer does the US largely view its relationship with India through a prism that must always include India’s next-door neighbour... As a diplomatic historian I can think of few instances in history in which the conceptualisation and core components of a bilateral relationship — especially between two democracies — have been so transformed in so short a time by peaceful means,” Mr Blackwill said.