WASHINGTON, Monday, July 18, 2005
AP, By WILLIAM C. MANN
President Bush said Monday that the United
States and India have built their strongest
relationship yet as he hosted an elaborate day
of ceremony for the country's prime minister
at the White House.
"India and the United States share a commitment
to freedom and a belief that democracy provides
the best path to a more hopeful future for all
people," Bush said at a news conference
with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "We
also believe that the spread of liberty is the
best alternative to hatred and violence."
* The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh along
with his wife Gursharan Kaur on their arrival
at Andrews Airforce Base, Maryland Washington
D.C. on July 17, 2005.
NRIs (non-resident Indians) mingles with
the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh on
his arrival at Andrews Airforce Base, Maryland
Washington D.C. on July 17, 2005.
But besides all the pomp, Bush wasn't willing
to fulfill one of Singh's top wishes
support for a permanent seat on the Security
Council of the United Nations. Singh said he
still made his case to Bush during their Oval
Office meeting.
"India has a compelling case for permanent
membership on the Security Council," Singh
said. "We are convinced that India can
significantly contribute to U.N. decision-making
and capabilities."
Considering a litany of alleged mismanagement,
corruption and other failings at the world body,
U.S. officials think an overhaul of U.N. operations
must be under way before any reshaping or expansion
of the Council can be considered. The United
States, Russia, China, Britain and France now
hold the only five spots.
Although U.S. officials said Singh was getting
a firm "no" on his request, he looked
for common ground. "In our talks, the president
and I were of one mind that the contemporary
reality must be fully reflected in the central
organs and decision-making processes of the
U.N.," he said.
Pressure around the meeting was eased somewhat
Sunday when the foreign ministers of populous
India, Brazil, Germany and Japan said they would
not seek a change in the council's makeup until
the end of July while they negotiate with the
53-nation African Union.
Council membership was likely to be among few
negatives to interfere with Singh's official
visit with Bush, which also included a welcome
ceremony and a gala dinner. Bush also told Singh
that he plans to visit India.
Bush rolled out full pomp and pageantry for
Singh's visit, with a bewigged fife and drum
corps marching across the South Lawn during
the welcome ceremony. The two leaders walked
side-by-side and inspected a long line of troops
in dress uniform.
Administration officials say the pomp was designed
to emphasize the growing importance to the United
States of India, a rising economic and military
power whose newfound affinity for the United
States is something Bush considers a major foreign
policy success.
"Our nations believe in freedom, and our
nations are confronting global terrorism,"
Bush said at the welcome ceremony. "As
diplomatic partners, we're meeting this threat
in our own nations and abroad. ... The relationship
between our two nations has never been stronger,
and it will grow even closer in the days and
years to come."
India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru,
was a founder of the Cold War's Nonaligned Movement,
which Nehru considered a "third way"
beyond what he considered the imperialism of
both Western capitalism and Soviet-style communism.
In practice it gravitated toward the latter,
which often put India severely at odds with
U.S. policies.
The detente began 18 months ago with signing
of the Next Steps in the Strategic Partnership
accord. It laid out a path to bring the two
democracies into a fully cooperative relationship
in economic and military affairs, energy, the
environment, space and technology and other
matters. A military cooperation agreement was
signed this year, and as many as 16 new cooperative
arrangements are planned for the Singh visit.
For now, however, the U.N. question will be
a difficult sell for the Indians.
"We believe very strongly that the larger
issues of U.N. reform also have to be addressed;
and if we have U.N. Security Council reform
out of phase with the larger U.N. reforms, then
we will not do justice to the organization,"
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told an
Indian interviewer during the weekend.
After she spoke, the Bush administration made
it even clearer. A senior official said that
if the vote on expansion were now, the United
States would vote against its own position,
stated last month, that endorsed an addition
of "two or so" permanent members,
one of them Japan, without veto power.
At a meeting in New York on Sunday, the foreign
ministers of India, Japan, Germany and Brazil
acknowledged they lacked the necessary two-thirds
majority of the 191-member U.N. General Assembly
for change without the backing of the African
nations, which have their own proposal for reorganizing
the Security Council.