Indo-US counterterrorism missions unlikely

New Delhi, Aug 20: Relations between USand India may be expanding rapidly but prospects of future military cooperation against terrorism does not look bright, says an American expert.

Polly Nayak, former US intelligence community's senior expert and manager on South Asia, says that persisting policy differences are responsible for this situation.

"While regular contact among counterterrorism officials probably will increase their mutual comfort over time, it will remain easier for the two sides to agree on tactical agendas than on strategic missions, given their foreign policy differences," Nayak says in "US-India Strategic Cooperation into the 21st Century", a book released Friday at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies here.

"India's strong preference for multilateral intervention and nervousness about US intentions and policies make joint US-Indian military operations against terrorism in the world unlikely in the near term," she says, presenting an American perspective of the issue.

"India probably will remain especially opposed to any US counterterrorism activities that would entail the presence of American Special Forces on Indian borders, let alone on Indian territory."

"US-Indian counterterrorism cooperation also may be limited by growing differences in focus," she writes. "India likely will remain preoccupied for at least the next decade with terrorism generated by home-grown separatist or ideologically-based groups like those in the northeast, not by Islamist militants.

"India's wider international aspirations also may limit ... cooperation with the US... First, India itself is likely to be one of the major players that will seek to balance - sometimes neutralize - the US superpower role in global affairs.

"Second, India will continue to prefer multilateral decision-making and cooperation." She added that new evidence of a global Maoist resurgence also might drive New Delhi closer to Washington.

"Major terrorist attacks against US interests that prove to have been orchestrated by Al Qaeda or by local groups based in Pakistan could upset Washington's relations with Islamabad; some Indian officials might see such a development as opening more space for US-Indian cooperation."

Both countries, she says, have divergent preoccupations and threat perceptions. "Each side has suspected bias in information received from the other regarding its terrorism nemeses."

Sources