Michael Richardson: US-India ties warm in face of China chill

As relations between the United States and one of Asia's emerging giants, China, come under increasing strain, US connections with the region's other rising power, India, are intensifying on a broad front.

US-India ties seem set to strengthen further when the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, starts a three-day state visit to Washington later today. The US is rolling out the red carpet. President George W. Bush will host a dinner for Singh while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host a lunch for him.

Visiting New Delhi this year, she said that the US wanted to develop "a decisively broader strategic partnership" with India. Singh's itinerary in Washington this week also includes the rare honour of an address to a joint session of the US Congress.

Indian officials say they hope to enhance fast-growing trade and investment with the US, gain access to American technology to expand India's nuclear power industry for generating electricity, and greatly expand air services between the two countries based on a recently concluded open-skies agreement.

"The visit will reaffirm at the highest level the transformation in India-US relations," said Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. "This is going to be a partnership that brings benefits not just to India, but also the US."

India and the US last month signed a new framework agreement for their defence relations over the next decade, as part of what both sides say will be a broader US-India strategic partnership. The accord covers weapons purchases and joint production, technology transfer, joint and combined military exercises, collaboration on missile defence, protecting the free flow of commerce via land, air and sea lanes, and co-operating to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

India, with a defence budget this year of US$17.5 billion ($26 billion), is the world's third-largest importer of military items. It is looking to buy and co-produce nearly 120 advanced fighter jets and 500 helicopters. US aerospace companies are keen to provide them.

During the Cold War, India trumpeted its non-alignment but leaned towards Moscow and bought many of its weapons from the Soviet Union. After the Cold War ended, India's nuclear tests in 1998 drew US sanctions. Now US officials regard India as a friendly democracy committed to combat terrorism and want to help it become a world power.

US-China tensions have risen over American claims of unfair trade practices and currency manipulation. This has fanned opposition to an US$18.5 billion bid by CNOOC, a state-owned Chinese oil firm, for US-owned energy firm Unocal.

The US has also been sharply critical of China's military build-up and threats to use force to prevent Taiwan's independence - issues that are likely to be prominent when the Pentagon sends its annual report on the Chinese armed forces to Congress, possibly this week.

Comments last week by a senior Chinese general that China could use its nuclear weapons to obliterate American cities if the US targeted Chinese territory in a military conflict over Taiwan have strengthened the case of the hawks in Washington who claim that China is bent on challenging US power and influence in Asia.

Those in the hawkish camp, including some in senior positions in the Bush Administration, argue that there is a natural affinity between the US, the world's most powerful democracy, and India, the most populous democracy. They want to enlist India not just as an ally in the global war on terrorism but as an Asian counterweight to China.

But New Delhi is also working to improve its relations with Beijing and is unlikely to become part of any strategy overtly designed to contain China. In April, India signed its own "strategic partnership" with China. It has similar relationships with Russia, Japan and the European Union.

Indian officials from Singh down have made it clear that they believe the country's interests are best served by maintaining constructive and balanced relations with all the major powers, including China.