Colin Powell sees India as strategic ally

[Guest guest]

US should recognise India as strategic ally: Powell

 

WASHINGTON: United States secretary of state-designate Colin Powell

strongly believes that his country should recognise India as a major

regional power and strategic ally. Powell accepted Goerge W Bush's

nomination as secretary of state Saturday.

 

"I think India is a land with enormous potential," Powell had said in

an interview with India Abroad News Service two years ago, adding

that it was imperative that Washington embraced New Delhi as regional

power and strategic ally.

 

Powell, 63, a former chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of

Staff but who is still considered very popular enough to be

president, said that even though he had spent only a few days in

India in 1997, he "was totally impressed with the vitality of the

country."

 

"I think from the United States perspective, now that the Cold War is

over, we should increasingly see India as a regional partner and a

major power in that part of the world," Powell said.

 

The confirmation of Powell, the son of immigrant Jamaican parents and

the architect of the 1991 Gulf War victory against Iraq, as the next

US secretary of state is expected to sail through. Some Senators,

particularly Republicans, who believe Powell would give the George W

Bush administration much credibility on foreign affairs, say that his

nomination should be approved by acclamation.

 

If he is confirmed, Powell will become the first African American in

United States history to be the nation's top diplomat. Also, as

expected, if Condoleezza Rice is appointed as the country's next

national security adviser, there would be two African Americans

serving in a Republican Cabinet, an unprecedented event in American

history.

 

Bush's decision to nominate Powell is also a tangible manifestation

of the importance he attaches to giving this American icon exclusive

top billing, while being mindful of the mileage he can derive from

this first Cabinet appointment.

 

In fact, it is no secret that even at the last minute, before he

named former defence secretary Richard Cheney -- now the vice

president-elect --to be his running mate, Bush had implored Powell to

take that slot.

 

As the kick-off speaker at the Republican National Convention at the

First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in July, Powell

showed that he's nobody's Uncle Tom when he declared that, "the issue

of race still casts a shadow over our society."

 

"Despite the impressive progress we have made over the last 40 years

to overcome this legacy over our troubled past, it (racism) is still

with us," he had said then. (Agencies)