US, India are forging global partnership, Burns

New York, Nov 29 (UNI) The United States and India are forging a natural global partnership economically, militarily and culturally that is one of the most significant shifts in US global policy in a decade, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R Nicholas Burns said.

In a speech to the Asia Society on Monday in New York, Burns said the United States and India finally have found each other and are now increasingly close partners in global politics on a range of interests that flow from both the bright side and darker forces of globalisation.

He said the US-India civil nuclear accord had received the most public attention, but ''there is actually an ambitious agenda of cooperative efforts under way through official government channels, private businesses and nonprofit organisations.'' He cited a litany of joint projects that included supporting the emergence of democratic institutions in countries around the world, cooperating in science and technology, engineering, griculture, communications and global climate change, and fighting illicit drug trafficking, trafficking in women and children and global terrorist organizations.

''We've never seen this kind of intensity of effort and purpose in the US-India relationship. It is absolutely what the United States should be doing to affect the kind of relationship we want to have with India,'' he said.

Burns said he will be visiting India in early December to ensure that all US initiatives are going as planned.

''We can safely say, I think, that we'll be partners in global economics and trade and investment. We're also going to have a very strong military relationship between our two countries,'' he said.

The cooperation between the Indian and US navies and air forces to help the victims of the 2004 tsunami demonstrated that the two governments could play a role in bringing relief to victims of natural disasters and might be relied on in other common security interests, Burns added.

''All the countries of South Asia are now a priority for US foreign policy in what is a shift in attention over the last eight years during the Clinton and Bush administrations,'' Burns said.

''For the first time in decades, American policymakers of both political parties in the Congress and certainly in (the Bush) Administration believe that what happens in South Asia is vital to the future security interests of the United States itself,'' the under secretary said.

Burns said, ''Pakistan is a key ally with which we are building ever stronger relations,'' because of the significant number of Al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists remaining in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, he pointed out, ''there is no more important partner in the fight against global terrorism than Pakistan.'' ''We support President [Pervez] Musharraf's vision of a strong and moderate and prosperous Pakistan,'' he said.

The United States has two great friends in the region in India and Pakistan, Burns said. ''One is not more important than the other, just different. The United States seeks a priority relationship with both.'' UNI XC SBA BST0510