FRIENDSHIP: "FOR" AND "AGAINST"

Washington is vigorously trying to bring some order to its foreign policy. In July Hillary Clinton, the head of the US State Department, visited Greece, attended the Istanbul summit of the International Contact Group on Libya and held extremely productive talks with Turkish leaders.

However, the "Asian part" of Clinton's trip caused no less interest. During her speech in Chennai, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the state secretary, after greeting the audience in the Tamil language, began to draw a picture of India's potential. The thrust of her "message" was simple - the US wants to see that country prosperous and powerful, which is a special part of the White House's geopolitical plans in this part of the world. Above all Clinton called on Delhi to strengthen its influence in Asia and to use its economic strength to assist the development of commercial activity in the Central Asian region and to strengthen trade ties with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clinton said that the Indian government could exert a positive influence on the future of the whole Asia-Pacific region.

The head of the US State Department did not once mention China but everyone understood who she was referring to - observers all agreed that the US is trying to create a reliable counterbalance to China's activities, prestige and power in the south and south-east Asia region.

The area of the South China Sea and its trade routes, fishing riches and serious potential energy resources is of particular importance. Last year Clinton openly stated that this region comes within the circle of US' national interests. This remark brought a negative reaction from China which considers the South China Sea to be a zone of its own influence. However, Washington is not one to hang around and is already knocking together a bloc of countries consisting of Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam and Australia. The activities of its "allies" are vast - from the economy to defence cooperation. For example, a base of American littoral combat ships has appeared in Singapore. Washington is initiating a tripartite strategic dialogue between the US, India and Japan "to protect peace and stability in Asia". Who could have thought that the Vietnamese and American navies would even be able to have joint exercises at sea?

But of all these only India has the chance to become the main rival of the Celestial Empire in Asia. And Washington, which invited Delhi to take part in the work of the Asian-Pacific forum of economic cooperation in the role of an observer, and also supports India's application to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, knows this perfectly well.

During her visit to India Clinton said that the United States would give that Asian country all necessary support in the fight against terrorism. The US State Secretary visited India less than a week after the latest terrorist act in Mumbai in which 19 people died. Against this background Delhi has long been worried by suspicious links between the Pakistani special services and radical Islamic groups, as well as the US' decision to reduce its military presence in Afghanistan.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna expressed concern at the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and urged the NATO countries and their allies to continue to help Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton was quick to reassure the Indian leaders, stressing that the US has no intention of abandoning Afghanistan. "Troop withdrawal does not mean shirking responsibility," the head of the US State Department stressed. At the same time, Clinton expressed satisfaction that India and Pakistan had decided to resume bilateral talks on a settlement of relations, stressing that this was a necessary step "to counter terrorism".

However atomic energy continues to be the fly in the ointment of American-Indian cooperation. The US State Secretary called for the development of cooperation between India and the US in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, but not everything is so simple. Clinton also advised Delhi to join more vigorously in a direct dialogue with the IAEA and its structures on the question of bringing the law on responsibility of the builders of nuclear power stations for damage caused as a result of accidents at nuclear reactors, adopted recently by the Indian parliament, in line with the international convention. Last year the Indian parliament adopted a law which allows huge payments to be demanded from the suppliers of nuclear equipment in the event of a disaster during the work of a reactor. The Americans, however, are afraid that other countries might do the same.

"The American-Indian nuclear deal, which was hailed as the centrepiece of a new partnership between the two most densely populated democracies in the world, has drifted dangerously since agreements were signed in 2008…The onerous terms imposed by the Indian parliament in relation to the suppliers of nuclear equipment have altered the playing field not to the benefit of American companies in the private sector but to the benefit of state-owned companies from Russia and France," was the devastating way in which the respected Washington Post described the current situation.

Coincidence or not, Clinton's visit to India clashed with Delhi's announcement that uranium supplies at a field in Andhra Pradesh were not 49,000 but 150,000 tonnes, which makes it one of the biggest in the world. Thus, there are about 275,000 tonnes of non-rich uranium in the whole of India.

Delhi plans to build over ten new nuclear power stations in the near future. BBC News reports that India is currently producing less than three percent of its overall volume of generated electricity at nuclear stations. By 2050 the country's authorities plan to bring energy production from nuclear stations to 25 per cent of the overall volume.

These are huge sums which threaten to pass Americans by and the disaster at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power station only threw fat on the fire. On the other hand, one can understand the Indian deputies. The international community, recently horrified by the outcome of the destructive tsunami in the Land of the Rising Sun, for some reason rarely recall the Bhopal disaster. Early in the morning of 3 December 1984, at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh state, India, there was a disaster which led to the deaths of at least 18,000 people, of whom 3,000 died on the day of the tragedy and 15,000 in subsequent years. The disaster area is still believed to be ecologically unsafe. The number of victims is put at between 150,000 and 500,000, which would make the Bhopal tragedy the worst man-made disaster in terms of numbers of victims…

Moreover, Delhi does not give Washington any assurances that Indian private companies will not pass on American nuclear technology and information to other parties. But without this, according to American law, a deal cannot take place. Furthermore, India has excluded American companies from its short-list of contenders for the right to supply multi-purpose combat aircraft to the sum of 10bn dollars. But then, as the American media has written, this deal for billions of dollars could have become the basis for a new strategic partnership.

Meanwhile, Clinton left India for the ASEAN regional forum on the island of Bali in Indonesia. ASEAN, which was set up in 1967, now includes ten countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. China, Japan, Russia, US, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, North Korea, Canada and the European Union are dialogue partners.. All the dialogue partners take part annually in the ASEAN regional forum on security. This year, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, and US State Secretary Hillary Clinton were invited for the first time as full-fledged participants to the consultations of foreign ministers for the preparation of the annual East-Asian Summit (EAS) of leaders of countries which form the structure of this forum.

The western media writes that decisions of importance to the US were adopted at the forum. An unscheduled meeting of diplomats from the KPDR and South Korea was held mainly in the corridors of the forum.

During the official part the foreign ministers of the ten states which comprise ASEAN, as well as Japan, South Korea and China, called for international talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, which began in 2003 but were interrupted at Pyongyang's initiative in December 2008, to be resumed as soon as possible. With this in mind, the US invited a high-ranking North Korean diplomat, Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kwae-Gan, to New York. According to Clinton, the US is open for a dialogue with the KPDR, but does not agree to dragging out talks and has no intention of "rewarding Pyongyang just because it is returning to the conference table".

During the ASEAN forum, the Americans said, steps were taken towards easing another international problem, which has recently been threatening to become a real headache, and that was China's dispute with four ASEAN members - Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam - and also Taiwan over the South China Sea. The situation has seriously worsened in the past year, which has turned into a number of serious incidents involving Chinese warships and civilian craft on the one hand and Vietnamese and Filipino fishing boats and transport vessels on the other. However, at the Indonesian forum China and a number of south-east Asian countries achieved prior agreement on a settlement of territorial disputes in the South China Sea - they agreed on the basic points of a future Code of Behaviour.

And although many observers described the text of the document as vague, this was still a big step towards an easing of tension. Thus, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that Beijing, which lays claims to the biggest part of the South China Sea, wants a peaceful settlement of the dispute. 

Meanwhile, a number of observers believe that the US is trying to speed up the progress of "ASEAN" diplomacy in order that it may become a tool for rivalry with Beijing. During an informal meeting between Clinton and Dai Bingo, a member of the Chinese State Council, the sides agreed to make joint efforts to preserve peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. However, in this case for some reason it is hard to believe the soothing words of East Asian diplomacy…