India's feeling bruised even before White House visit

WASHINGTON — Even before India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to be welcomed for his first state visit with President Obama, two perceived missteps by the Obama administration have concerned Indian officials that New Delhi has been relegated to the second tier of U.S.-Asian relations.

Singh arrived Sunday on a four-day trip meant to solidify a relationship transformed under the Bush administration by a deal on nuclear technology, increasing trade and investment, immigration, educational exchanges and unprecedented security cooperation.

Concern about China

But ever sensitive to perceived slights, Indian officials and analysts say two statements made by the Obama administration during the president's recent trip to Asia have raised concerns Washington is leaning too closely to China, India's main Asian competitor.

Indian officials note that in a speech on U.S. relations in Asia, President Obama did not mention India. The speech in Tokyo focused on the Asia Pacific region and not South Asia, but Indian officials and analysts said they were concerned Obama did not recognize India's broader regional aspirations — something that had been encouraged by the Bush administration.

Indian officials have also raised concerns that in a joint statement issued Tuesday by the U.S. and China, Obama appeared to open the door for Beijing to act as a mediator of sorts in the long-term competition between India and Pakistan.

China and the United States, the statement said, "are ready to strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia and work together to promote peace, stability and development in that region."

Since the early 1960s, when China and India fought a border war, China has maintained close ties with Pakistan and, according to a recent Washington Post report, even supplied Islamabad with a blueprint for a nuclear device and the raw materials to explode one.

No third party

In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vishnu Prakash reacted to the joint statement by saying that "a third-country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary" to solve the troubles between India and Pakistan.

"Obama's China (credit) card casts shadow on PM's US visit," ran the headline in the influential Times of India, referring to the $800 billion in U.S. Treasury securities held by China.

U.S. officials have attempted to tamp down the concerns.

"Of course, the United States is interested in pursuing the best and healthiest possible partnership with China; but that does not come at the expense of other increasingly important partnerships, particularly our relationship with India," Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns said last week.

Asked about the joint statement with Beijing, he said it was "a very straightforward expression of that we look to China, we look to India, as many other countries in the world, to contribute to stability in Afghanistan."

Ashley Tellis, a former State Department official now at the Carnegie Endowment, said he had detected in India "a sense of exclusion that's been gnawing at them since the Tokyo speech." He added that "the joint statement prompted new fears that somehow the United States and China would collude to manage events in South Asia."

Tellis said this has caused anxiety in India because tensions between Beijing and New Delhi have spiked over competing border claims. In addition, Indians are concerned the Obama administration, unlike the Bush administration, views India as part of the South Asian problem, which includes the war in Afghanistan and instability in Pakistan.

Finally, Tellis said, the recent joint statement recalled an earlier U.S.-China effort against India in July 2008 soon after India had conducted a nuclear test. In that statement, Washington and Beijing also agreed to work to pressure India and Pakistan.

"That statement drove the Indians crazy," Tellis said, "because the Chinese were a party to the problems in South Asia."

That said, most analysts and officials believe that at root the problem is one of perception and perhaps the product of a new staff in the White House not yet accustomed to the prickly world of relations with New Delhi.

Indian investment in the U.S. is over $11 billion, and two-way trade has more than doubled to $80 billion over the past decade. India has more students in the United States than any other country, and the U.S. hands out more visas for highly skilled workers to India than any other country.

Intelligence cooperation, spurred by the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year, occurs on a "daily, monthly and weekly basis," U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer told reporters last week.