WASHINGTON -- President Bush will spend two days this week in India, his presence underscoring in U.S. eyes the South Asian nation's emergence as a significant economic and political player on the world stage.
It will mark the first time that two successive American presidents have visited the world's largest democracy. President Bill Clinton traveled to India in March 2000 for a five-day trip, ending a 22-year hiatus since a U.S. president had set foot in New Delhi.
Indian officials later described Mr. Clinton's visit as "the turning point" in relations between the two countries; their ties had been regarded by some as "estranged democracies."
Since then, Mr. Bush has built on that relationship and accelerated the warming ties. The agenda between the two countries continues to grow, as evidenced by the successful visit to Washington in July of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Eight major initiatives were announced. They included a "CEO Forum" made up of top U.S. and Indian business leaders to broaden economic relations, a Global Democracy Initiative to aid developing democracies, an agreement (still to be made final and a subject of controversy in both capitals) to develop India's civilian nuclear energy program, and cooperation in space (India will carry two U.S. payloads on its forthcoming unmanned moon probe).
India's ambassador to Washington, Ronen Sen, cites biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology as further "frontiers that our scientists can explore together."
There has been a quantum jump in U.S.-India defense ties in the past several years, with joint military exercises, increased interest in defense procurement and collaboration between defense industries, and the signing of a 10-year defense framework agreement.
Influential Indians such as K. Subrahmanyan believe that increased U.S.-Indian security ties - broadly defined - make sense: "The U.S. and India have a convergence in terms of the central security challenges they will face in the future, such as terrorism; proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear technologies; international crime; narcotics; HIV/AIDS; and climate change."
The progress in U.S.-Indian relations is reflected in a pre-Bush arrival survey commissioned by the Indian magazine Outlook. It found that 66 percent of those polled agree that Mr. Bush is "a friend of India," 72 percent believe India should link itself with the U.S. on trade and business issues, and a majority say that India can trust Washington for support in times of need.
