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Ambassador Lalit Mansingh's Letter to Friends of India

Update on US-India Relations
June 2, 2002

Dear Friend

It is some time since I wrote to you at the end of last year. The momentum of exchanges between India and United States has grown rapidly in the first few week of the new year.

There were several important visits in both directions in the month of January. Home Minister L.K. Advani and Defense Minister George Fernandes both visited Washington, where they met with the President, the Vice-President and important Cabinet members. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha was also in New York the same month for the meeting of World Economic Forum.

Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Delhi in January and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers went there in February. This was the second visit by the Chairman JCSC to India in less than a year. The fourth meeting of the India-US Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism was held in Delhi in January. Meetings of the bilateral Executive Steering Groups of the Army, Navy and Air Force all took place in February.

These exchanges have contributed in substantive measure to the strengthening of our cooperation in the campaign against terrorism and to intensifying our relations in the critical area of defense. They reflect the growing convergence of interests of our two countries and are intended to build upon the complementarities of our skills and resources as we face the challenges of the new century.

Our defense cooperation, in particular, shows great promise. More exchanges are to take place in the coming months, and both sides are engaged in a wide range of joint activities. The US Administration and Congress are also processing several license applications for export of defense items to India. It is our hope that the tempo of clearance of these applications would increase in the coming weeks and months.

Two other important visits that took place in recent weeks were those of the Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission Dr. Anil Kakodkar, and of the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation Dr. K. Kasturirangan. These visits were the direct result of a decision taken during Prime Minister Vajpayee's visit last November to initiate cooperation with the US in the areas of civilian nuclear safety and civilian space applications. They also served to highlight India's commendable progress and achievements in frontier sciences. A meeting of the Governing Body of the India-US Science and Technology Forum took place in Delhi last week, when leading scientific administrators from both countries agreed to launch joint collaborative programmes in areas of cutting edge technology such as bio-fuel and bio-energy, nanotechnology, climate modeling with emphasis on improvement of global analysis for weather forecasting, developmental neurobiology and computational neuroscience, human and plant genomics, etc.

It was heartening that in January India's export performance was the best among the top 25 countries exporting to the United States. Our exports registered a growth of eight per cent over the corresponding period last year. You would also have noted that India's steel exports were almost entirely exempted from the recent remedial action under Section 201 of the US Trade Act.

Most of you would have read of the tragic happenings in Gujarat at the end of February and beginning of March. These incidents are worthy of condemnation, and are inconsistent with India's ethos of harmony and tolerance. However, we should recognise these incidents for what they really are, namely, criminal acts carried out by a small number of criminal elements belonging to both communities. Contrary to some reports in the media, the Central and State Governments acted quickly to contain and bring the situation under control. A point-by-point rebuttal of various unfounded allegations of inaction, bias, etc. on the part of the Government can be seen on the Embassy's website http://www.indianembassy.org.

Despite occasional aberrations, such as the recent Gujarat incidents, India's commitment to democracy and secularism remains strong. Our Constitution guarantees our people fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to practice and propagate the religion of their choice, and our judicial institutions are strong enough to implement the law. Above all, India's billion-strong society is committed to upholding its civilisational values of pluralism and tolerance. It has the resilience to withstand and defeat the efforts of a small handful to disrupt harmony and divide our country.

I hope you find my communications to you of some use. I look forward to receiving a regular feedback, including your advice and suggestions on how we can together build upon the common values and interests that bind India and United States.

Yours sincerely

(Lalit Mansingh)