Powell on India

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First word from Bush team is music to India

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

 

"Powell predicted that India would emerge as the most powerful and

populous country and ``we should engage more broadly with India, do

what we can to restrain their nuclear programme and also help them

with economic development''.

 

 

WASHINGTON, JAN 18: In the first major policy statement of the new

Bush administration on India, Secretary of State-designate Colin

Powell has said the US has to ``engage more broadly'' with New Delhi

and indicated a review and lifting of the remaining post-Pokhran

sanctions.

 

``I would see whether it is time to move forward to remove all the

remaining sanctions against India and consult colleagues on the

issue,'' he said addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

during his confirmation hearing yesterday.

 

He was replying to a question raised by Senator Sam Brownback whether

the Bush administration would lift the remaining sanctions against

India.

 

Powell predicted that India would emerge as the most powerful and

populous country and ``we should engage more broadly with India, do

what we can to restrain their nuclear programme and also help them

with economic development''.

 

Powell, the first black American to be nominated secretary of state,

said the Bush administration should deal more wisely with India

keeping in view its vast potential in the India ocean and its

periphery.

 

``India is a country that should grow more and more focussed in the

lens of our foreign policy. We need to work harder and more

consistently with India ... while not neglecting our friends in

Pakistan,'' he said.

 

Regretting the trigger-happy attitude of Congress members where

sanctions were concerned, he said there were too many sanctions

against too many countries and pledged to review all of them.

 

Every sanction must have a ``sunset clause'' at the end of which it

should automatically cease to be in force or be renewed, he said.

 

Powell also indicated that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will not

be brought up in the next session of the Congress.

 

In a significant shift in Washington's policy towards China, he

said, ``A strategic partner China is not. But neither is China our

inevitable and implacable foe.``China is a competitor and a potential

regional rival as also a trading partner willing to cooperate in

areas such as Korea where our strategic interests overlap. China is

all of these things; but China is not an enemy and our challenge is

to keep it that way,'' he said.

 

President Bill Clinton had hailed China as a ``strategic partner''

who played a ``positive role'' in South Asia.

 

Referring to Taiwan and the one-China policy, he said the US had long

acknowledged that there was only one China. ``In that respect Taiwan

is part of China. How the People's Republic of China and Taiwan

resolve the differences in interpretation of that view is up to them;

so long as military force is not one of the methods used,'' Powell

said.

 

He also indicated the US National Missile Defence shield would not be

shelved despite opposition from China and Russia.

 

He said Russia stood to gain enormous benefits from its relationship

with the US and with the West in general.

 

``But that relationship can only be strong and successful if Russia

does what it needs to do... like getting on with reforms, rooting out

corruption, halting proliferation of missile technology and nuclear

materials... and, in general, living up to the obligations it has

incurred as the newest democracy with world power credentials,''

Powell said.

 

2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.