WASHINGTON, March 15: A new legislation in the US Congress includes a resolution expressing sentiments of the House that India should be a permanent member of the UN Security Council, says a congressional report published days before Secretary of Condoleezza Rice’s visit to New Delhi.
The report by the Congressional Research Service also notes that in February a delegation of US’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency visited New Delhi to brief Indian officials on the Patriot missile defence system. A delegation of Nuclear Regulatory Commission also visited India last month for technical discussions and visits to selected nuclear facilities, the report adds.
The report of CRS, which provides policy briefs to Indian lawmakers, also refers to a recent statement by India’s air force chief that US-built F-16 warplanes were among four types of multi-role fighters that India will consider purchasing. In February the inaugural session of the US-India High-Technology Defence Working Group met in Bangalore where participants and US defence contractor Lockheed Martin announced having won export licenses to sell C-130J transport and P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft to India.
The CRS warns that despite recent positive developments in Indo-Pak relations, an unresolved dispute over a dam that India is constructing in Baglihar, Kashmir could derail progress.
“While separatist violence in Indian Kashmir is unabated and cost dozens of lives in recent weeks, Indian officials insist that rates of ‘cross-border’ infiltration by militants came down significantly over previous years,” the report observes.
The CRS points out that end of the Cold War freed India-US relations from constraints of global bipolarity, but New Delhi-Washington relations continued for a decade to be affected by the burden of history, “most notably the longstanding India-Pakistan rivalry.”
