US unveils plans to make India ‘major power’

WASHINGTON: The US unveiled plans on Friday to help India become a "major world power in the 21st century" even as it announced moves to beef up the military of Pakistan.

Under the plans, Washington offered to step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defence and other security initiatives as well as high-tech cooperation and expanded economic and energy cooperation.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has presented to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the Bush administration’s outline for a "decisively broader strategic relationship" between the world’s oldest and largest democracies, a senior US official said.

"Its goal is to help India become a major world power in the 21st century," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We understand fully the implications, including military implications, of that statement."

He did not elaborate but noted that South Asia was critical, with China on one side, Iran and the Middle East on the other, and a somewhat turbulent Central Asian region to the north.

The US-India plan was announced as Washington decided on Friday to sell an undetermined number of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan under a plan to prop up Pakistan on the political, military and economic fronts.

Rice discussed the US-India plan with Singh during her Asian visit earlier this month but it was not revealed to the public.

"This year the administration made a judgment that the ‘Next Steps in Strategic Partnership,’ though very important, wasn’t broad enough to really encompass the kind of things we needed to do to take this relationship where it needed to go, and so the president and the secretary (Rice) developed the outline for a decisively broader strategic relationship," the US official said. Bush was inviting Prime Minister Singh to visit him in July in Washington and the US leader would also like to travel to South Asia later this year or early next year, he said. Those presidential meetings, he added, would "be consolidating an enhanced dialogue" on the strategic, energy and economic tracks with India.

The strategic dialogue will include global issues, regional security matters, Indian defence requirements, expanding high-tech cooperation and even working toward US-India defence co-production, the official explained.

The US, he said, was prepared to "respond positively" to an Indian request for information on American initiatives to sell New Delhi the next generation of multi-role combat aircraft. "That’s not just F-16s. It could be F-18s," he said.

Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said US corporations were now "free to talk to India" about whatever aircraft they could offer. "It’ll be up to India to decide what it wants. And then negotiations, if it does decide it wants something from us, based on its needs, would proceed from there," Ereli said.

Beyond possible sale of fighter planes, the US is ready to discuss the more fundamental issue of defence transformation with India, including transformative systems in areas such as command and control, early warning and missile defence, the official said.

"Some of these items may not be as glamorous as combat aircraft, but I think for those of you who follow defence issues you’ll appreciate the significance," he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview published by The Washington Post Saturday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and elaborated on US efforts to build ties with both India and Pakistan at once.

"What we’re trying to do is to solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan at a time when we have good relations with both of them, something that most people didn’t think could be done, and when they have improving relationships with one another," Rice told the Post.

"There is no contradiction between encouraging Pakistan to advance towards democracy and seeking a deeper military relationship with that nation," Rice said. Rice dismissed concerns (of India) that the sale of F-16s to Pakistan would send a contradictory message.

"What we’re trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that’s good for Pakistan has to be bad for India and vice versa."

"What I talked about when I was in India was broadening and deepening our relationship for instance in defence cooperation, broadening and deepening our relationship in energy cooperation," Rice said. Asked if that included nuclear power plants, Rice said "we’re a step from that, certainly, but looking at their energy needs and trying to understand how they can be met."

She defended the decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan. "Pakistan has come a long way, it’s on a better trajectory than it’s ever been, or that it’s been in many, many years," she said. "Our job is to support that trajectory and to help bring that along."