Indian Officials Keep Fingers Crossed On Clinton-Gujral Meet

Senior external affairs ministry officials are keeping their fingers crossed as the stage is being set for a meeting that could become a landmark in Indo-US relations, the meeting between Prime Minister I K Gujral and President Bill Clinton, between 3.45 and 4.30 pm on Monday, at the Presidents suite at Waldorf Astoria hotel.

The Kashmir issue, specifically the possibility of US pressure for more formal talks with Pakistan on the issue, is casting a shadow over the meeting, but officials who have been preparing the ground for the meet say they are looking beyond to the wide panorama of potential Indo-US relations to which the Clinton administrations recent gestures have opened a window.

 

Its like standing at the edge of an inviting blue sea, wanting to go in for a swim, but saying maybe there are some sharks lurking there, says a senior external affairs ministry official. You cant just back off. You have to take the plunge and hope there are no sharks there.

For India, eventual inclusion in APEC and other economic blocs, solutions to contentious issues like drug and agricultural patents and quantitative restrictions and the release of high technology exports to Indian companies like BEL and nuclear installations are all alluring possibilities.

Officials are chary of talking about it, but acknowledge that a closer relationship between Washington and New Delhi could pave the way for strategic co-operation in an arena in which China is fast emerging as a potential superpower. It certainly presages closer integration of India with South-East and Central Asia.

Senior officials say the positive signals from Washington have been unprecedented. Hillary and Bill Clinton have separately committed themselves to an India visit eight months in advance in spite of the political uncertainty in New Delhi. One official says the Hillarys visit to India seems to have been an important spur and that Clinton is definitely very curious about India.

Having more or less got the foreign policy priorities of his first administration