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June 11, 2008
US has Vital Stake in India's Rise to Global Power: Rice
By
Arun Kumar
Washington
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice considers India's rise to
global power and prosperity as "vital" as Washington seeks to get
right its relationships with the existing and emerging global
players.
"The United States has a vital stake in India's rise to global power
and prosperity, and relations between the two countries have never
been stronger or broader," said Rice, considered the prime architect
of US foreign policy under President George Bush, reflecting on the
last eight years.
"It will take continued work, but this is a dramatic breakthrough
for both our strategic interests and our values," she said in an
article in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine
published by Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank.
The "strategic shock" of Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks swept US
into a fundamentally different world, she said making Washington "to
lead with a new urgency and with a new perspective on what
constituted threats and what might emerge as opportunities.
"What has changed is, most broadly, how we view the relationship
between the dynamics within states and the distribution of power
among them," she said. But "what has not changed is that our
relations with traditional and emerging great powers still matter to
the successful conduct of policy.
"Thus, my admonition in 2000 that we should seek to get right the
"relationships with the big powers" - Russia, China, and emerging
powers such as India and Brazil - has consistently guided us," said
Rice, a key member of a group of experts engaged by Bush in the run
up to the 2000 presidential elections to brush up his world view.
"As before, our alliances in the Americas, Europe and Asia remain
the pillars of the international order, and we are now transforming
them to meet the challenges of a new era," she said.
But "the importance of strong relations with global players extends
to those that are emerging. With those, particularly India and
Brazil, the United States has built deeper and broader ties.
"India stands on the front lines of globalisation. This democratic
nation promises to become a global power and an ally in shaping an
international order rooted in freedom and the rule of law," Rice
said.
"Brazil's success at using democracy and markets to address
centuries of pernicious social inequality has global resonance," she
said noting, "Today, India and Brazil look outward as never before,
secure in their ability to compete and succeed in the global
economy."
"In both countries, national interests are being redefined as
Indians and Brazilians realise their direct stake in a democratic,
secure, and open international order - and their commensurate
responsibilities for strengthening it and defending it against the
major transnational challenges of our era," Rice said.
The US has a vital interest in the success and prosperity of these
and other large multiethnic democracies with global reach, such as
Indonesia and South Africa, she said. "And as these emerging powers
change the geopolitical landscape, it will be important that
international institutions also change to reflect this reality."
"This is why President Bush has made clear his support for a
reasonable expansion of the UN Security Council," she said without
hinting whether Washington backed India's claim for a permanent seat
on the world body.
Deepening democratisation across the Asia-Pacific region was also
expanding the circle of US allies and advancing shares goals, she
said.
"Indeed, although many assume that the rise of China will determine
the future of Asia, so, too - and perhaps to an even greater degree
- will the broader rise of an increasingly democratic community of
Asian states," Rice said.
"This is the defining geopolitical event of the twenty-first
century, and the United States is right in the middle of it," she
said noting Washington enjoyed "a strong, democratic alliance with
Australia, with key states in Southeast Asia, and with Japan.
"Finally, the United States has a vital stake in India's rise to
global power and prosperity, and relations between the two countries
have never been stronger or broader," Rice said. "It will take
continued work, but this is a dramatic breakthrough for both our
strategic interests and our values."
The US has long tried to marry power and principle - realism and
idealism, the top US diplomat said citing Washington's
"relationships with Russia and China (that) are complex and
characterised simultaneously by competition and cooperation."
Pakistan too was an example of how the US has balanced its concerns
"for reform and support (for) indigenous agents of change in
non-democratic countries, even as we cooperate with their
governments on security."
"This uniquely American realism has guided us over the past eight
years, and it must guide us over the years to come," she said.
IANS
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June 11, 2008
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