India-U.S. Strategic Partnership: Perceptions, Potential, and Problems

Transcript

MR. JASWANT SINGH: You don't have to define strategic partnership when you talk of Great Britain and the United States of America. Why? Because there is the great evolution of these countries which some, and somewhat pejoratively, call the "cozy club of Anglo-Saxon cousins." They're natural partners. I have seen how countries like Canada, Australia, or New Zealand have, at the slightest indication from the United States of America, done exactly what the United States of America want, because I've had to deal with it. But I was struck; they're not in the list of strategic partners.

So we need therefore—I don't think India has had strategic partners in that sense of strategic partners as equals. As equals and with candor and with trust. You relate to one another and you then address the great issues of the day. I believe that India and the United States of America must be strategic partners. The two countries must understand what is it that they mean by "strategic partner" or "natural ally," and this concept should not be which, instead of bringing us together, divides us. We could well be divided if the approach to strategic partnership is so different and we don't sit together and address it.

I don't want to go into further detail, because then it becomes a critique of some of the policies of the United States of America in the region. Do we in India have any policies that disturb you in your ideas of vital national interest? Then you the United States must sit with us and engage with us as partners. And if there are aspects that disturb us, India, and if we are strategic partners, then the United States must be able to sit with India and engage in say what it that is troubling you is. Let's jointly try and find an answer.

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