New
Delhi
December 15, 2000
This year has marked a significant shift in the direction of Indo-US relations. For the first time in the history of their bilateral relations, India and the United States exchanged State visits in the same year. The State visits have been supplemented by unprecedented level of dialogue at the ministerial and official levels and expansion of cooperation in a broad range of areas.
President Clinton's visit to India in March was the first US Presidential visit to India in 22 years and was one of the most extensive overseas visit undertaken by him as the US President. During the visit, Prime Minister and President Clinton outlined the vision of a closer and qualitatively new relationship between the two countries in the 21st century, This vision is predicated on the many shared values, interests and opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation, and is also in recognition of the positive and important role that closer Indo-US relations can play in shaping the character of the world in the 21st century.
The two leaders also agreed on wide-ranging institutionalized dialogue, architecture to pursue the new relationship. The architecture was expanded during Prime Minister's reciprocal visit to the United States in September. It includes, in addition to regular 'summits' between Prime Minister and the US President, ministerial and official. levels forums for dialogue on international political and security matters, trade and commerce, finance and investment, science and technology, energy and environment, counter-terrorism and UN peacekeeping operations., The two sides have implemented all the elements of the dialogue architecture and are currently discussing the scope and structure of bilateral dialogue on Afghanistan - a new initiative announced during Prime Minister's visit.
Prime Minister paid an official visit to Washington in September at the invitation of the US President. Apart from official engagements with President Clinton, Prime Minister was given the honor of being the only foreign leader to address a Joint Sitting of the 106th Congress of the US. The US Congress also welcomed Prime Minister and called for building stronger Indo-US , relations through a resolution adopted by the House of Representatives and the Senate, He also had separate meetings with the Speaker, the House Democratic leadership, the Senate-Foreign Relations Committee., the House International Relations Committee and the India Caucus :These reflect the broad, bipartisan support that exists in US for India-US relations. Prime Minister and President Clinton together dedicated the Gandhi Memorial Statue at a public park in front of the India Embassy in Washington.
In a joint statement the two leaders reaffirmed the vision of March 2000. Both sides recognize that the visit helped in accelerating the upward path in bilateral relations and contributed to the process of building the new relationship. While emphasizing the bilateral opportunities, both sides also placed the relationship in the larger international context, based on shared values, complementary strengths and growing convergence of interests and opportunities. Prime Minister and Governor Bush spoke on phone. Governor Bush expressed support for closer Indo-US relations and assured continuity US policy towards India.
There is growing convergence of views between the two sides on regional issues including on Afghanistan and terrorism originating from our western neighborhood. The US has also increasingly begun to acknowledge links between Pakistan and cross-border terrorism in India. T he US has urged resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan, but also recognizes that there is incompatibility between violence in Jammu & Kashmir and dialogue. It has also asked Pakistan to create the conditions for dialogue with India to succeed. The Joint Working Group on Counter- terrorism, the Asian Security Dialogue and the Joint Working Group on UN peacekeeping reflect growing commonality of interests between the two countries on international security issues.
Economic relations between the two countries have continued to grow. The US remains our largest trading partner and the biggest source of foreign investment. Between 1990 and 1999, bilateral. trade with the US grew 2.5 times, while our exports to the US grew 3 times. India today sells twice as much to the US as it buys from the US. The US accounts for over 20% Of cumulative direct foreign investments approved since 1991. It also accounts for over 60% of our information technology exports. To further boost bilateral economic cooperation, the two sides have set up a bilateral economic dialogue, comprising a High Level coordinating Group and three ministerial level forums, in addition to a Science Technology Forum, Joint Working Group on Energy & Environment. Initiatives have also been launched in the health sector.
The United States has progressively eased in many the restrictions, especially those relating to economic measures, that it had imposed under its domestic law following the nuclear tests of May 1998. Restrictions continue to be maintained on US support for lending, by International Financial. Institutions to India, certain credit and credit guarantees by US Government. agencies to India, export of items on the US Munitions List and export of "dual use" items and technologies. The, US has removed 53 Indian organizations from the Entity List from the original list of over 200 organizations. We continue to maintain that such restrictions are counter- productive to the realization of the full potential of Indo-US relations that both sides desire.
The ongoing dialogue on security and non-proliferation issues, which began after May 1998, has led to some progress in reducing the gap in mutual understanding between the two sides on these issues. Some differences continue to remain. The two sides have agreed to continue the dialogue to further narrow the differences in this area.