Thursday, Apr 17, 2003
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By C. Raja Mohan
In a telephonic call initiated by India, the two leaders discussed late this evening the unfolding situation in Iraq and reviewed the developments in the subcontinent. The conversation lasted half an hour. Mr. Sinha was among the top diplomats that Mr. Powell has been regularly in touch to discuss major international issues. Mr. Sinha and Mr. Powell have enjoyed an excellent personal rapport. The American preoccupation with the war in Iraq, and India's somewhat chaotic response to the U.S effort to oust Saddam Hussein, seemed to create a needless hiatus in the communication between the two countries. Diplomatic observers here have also been pointing to a growing rift between New Delhi and Washington over India's proclaimed right for a pre-emptive war against Islamabad similar to the American action in Iraq. The U.S. has refused to accept a comparison between Iraq and Pakistan. Despite the complications created by the resolutions on Iraq in Parliament last week, New Delhi has to explore ways to re-establish its presence in a post-Saddam Iraq. India and the U.S. also need a shared understanding on how best to deal with the sources of extremism and terrorism in Pakistan, as cross-border infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir begins to rise this summer. While officials are tight-lipped about the details of the conversation between Mr. Sinha and Mr. Powell, the assessment here is that a renewed engagement at the high political level should help restore trust and confidence between New Delhi and Washington. If the public statements over the last few days have cast a shadow over Indo-U.S. relations, today's frank conversation between the two leaders is being seen here as a long overdue diplomatic exercise to arrest the dangerous slide in the ties between the two nations.
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