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Indo-US relations not at cost of ties with China: New Delhi
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 2
Days ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit, India today dismissed suggestions that growing Indo-US relations could affect New Delhi’s ties with China.

“I don’t see our relations with the US affecting our relations with China,” National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said at a dialogue on “US-India Strategic Partnership”, organised by FICCI and Brookings Institution. Emphasising that China was India’s biggest neighbour and a major trading partner, he said there were sensitivities on both sides and just as all major powers were talking to each other, there was need to engage with Beijing.

Pushing for greater engagement with China, Menon said India and China could manage their differences and should work to solve them. Noting that both the sides were sensitive to issues like Tibet and Kashmir, Menon said the two countries recognised the sensitivities and it was only a question of how skilled they were in managing it.

His comments came as top Chinese leader Zhou Yangkong concluded a three-day visit to India, meeting top political leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, for a free and frank discussion on issues between the two countries.

Referring to Indo-US ties, he said they had changed in a fundamental way in the last decade. “We have more than just a transactional relationship with the US. The two nations have an open, democratic and inclusive architecture, we have learnt over time that mercantilism and protectionism do not serve us well and it is time to be ambitious about the relationship.”

He said the two democratic nations respect the rule of law, open trading arrangements, and rule-based multilateral trade. India and the US, he said, were capable of institutional innovation and “we need to be pragmatic to work this relationship where it works and go beyond ‘what’s in it for me’ and move to a more holistic and strategic level of engagement”.

Menon also dismissed suggestions of a row between the two countries over the intelligence sharing on Pakistan-born American terrorist David Coleman Headley prior to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

“In India, (there is a debate on) how much did the US know about Headley at what time and how much did they tell us. If you look at the broader picture, the kind of access we got to Headley is unprecedented," he said. Strobe Talbott, former US Deputy Secretary of State, said: “US companies that have done strategic outsourcing are actually doing well, creating jobs and helping the US economy.” On counter-terrorism, Talbott said the Mumbai massacres were a wake-up call for the two governments.