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India, US deepen engagement

Summers due in India today ahead of Clinton trip

NEW DELHI: US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers arrives in India on Monday for a three-day visit to help prepare the ground for the first US presidential trip to the South Asian nation in over two decades.

At about the time Summers confers with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, top U.S. and Indian diplomats will meet in London to discuss nuclear non-proliferation, the issue that has most kept them apart.

Together with a flurry of visits by U.S. Congressmen to the region, the heightened interaction between the two countries who were on opposite sides of the fence during the Cold War paves the way for a planned visit by President Bill Clinton.

Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and Deputy Secretary of state Strobe Talbott are scheduled to meet in London on January 18 for the 10th round of a sensitive arms control dialogue that began after New Delhi held a string of nuclear tests in May 1998.

"The sun is out on Indo-U.S. relations and we must make hay," U.S. Senator Sam Brownback told reporters in New Delhi.

No dates have been announced for Clinton's visit, and officials say the trip depends on how much progress the two sides make in their nuclear dialogue.

"It is obvious that the positive environment we both seek for this trip will be affected by the extent to which we are (able) or not able to find common ground on nuclear issues," Talbott was quoted as saying in the Hindu newspaper.

Talbott and Singh are seeking to reconcile U.S. non-proliferation concerns with Indian security interests. Washington has urged India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty while New Delhi insists on a minimum nuclear deterrent.

Brownback was quoted as saying he expected a Clinton visit in spring and that sanctions imposed on India for its nuclear tests could be reviewed.

A presidential visit, the first since Jimmy Carter's trip in 1977-78, would also burnish the image of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which faced international condemnation for ordering the tests.

K. Subrahmanyam, India's foremost strategic analyst, said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government, which was returned to office last October, had launched a second generation of reforms and this made the South Asian giant attractive.

"This government has done quite a bit in the area of reforms, opened up the insurance sector. A deeper engagement with the United States is obvious," Subrahmanyam said.

Last month India's parliament passed a landmark law throwing open the tightly controlled domestic insurance business to foreign and private players.

But the liberalisation process has had several false starts. Last month an international joint venture between CLP International and U.S-based Congentrix called off its 1,000 MW, $1.3 billion power project in the southern state of Karnataka citing delays in governmental approvals.

Government officials said the reform process would stay the course. "Our commitment to the reform process is accepted by all, but it has to be dictated by our priorities," said one Foreign Ministry official.-Reuters