THE NEW SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP:

A mad March, India style (US News, 3/21/05)

An ardent sports fan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be forgiving if her Indian hosts are a bit distracted when she visits this week. India is caught up in its version of March Madness, a series of passionate cricket matches pitting India against neighbor and erstwhile blood foe Pakistan. The series has been embraced as a sign of easing political tensions, with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf due to make a rare visit to India to cheer his side on. Still, Rice can be a headline grabber if, as Indian officials anticipate, she sets a date for a fall visit by President Bush--an event seen here as affirming India's strengthening ties with the United States, its largest trading and investment partner. "In a week's time, probably, this matter will be resolved," Prime Minster Manmohan Singh told a group of visiting American editors. A visit would give Bush a chance to applaud India's market-opening economic reforms and to advance his democracy campaign by pointing to the diversity in the world's largest democracy: India's president is Muslim, its prime minister is a Sikh, and its most powerful political figure, Sonia Gandhi, is Roman Catholic--in a predominately Hindu nation.

For their part, Indians appreciate that Bush isn't hammering them over nuclear weapons and American-job outsourcing. A recent BBC survey found that India was among the few countries where people view Bush's re-election positively. Prithviraj Chavan, a minister of state, predicts "an exceptionally warm reception for him," even though India refused to send troops to Iraq and opposes a possible sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars since 1947.

In retrospect the ties the President is forging with India will be seen as just as important as the changes he's bringing to the Middle East.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2005 11:25 PM