WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- New legislation in the U.S. Congress includes a House resolution expressing support for India becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, says a congressional report published just days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to New Delhi.
The report by the Congressional Research Service also notes that in February, a U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency delegation visited New Delhi to brief Indian officials on the Patriot missile defense system. A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission delegation also visited India last month for technical discussions and trips to selected nuclear facilities, the report adds.
The CRS, which provides policy briefs to Indian lawmakers, also refers to a recent statement by India's air force chief who said that U.S.-built F-16 warplanes were among four types of multi-role fighters that India will consider purchasing.
In February, the report adds, the inaugural session of the U.S.-India High-Technology Defense Working Group met in Bangalore, where participant and U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced having won export licenses to sell C-130J transport and P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft to India.
The CRS warns that despite recent positive developments in India-Pakistan relations, "Concerns remain that an unresolved dispute over a dam that India is constructing in Baglihar, Kashmir could derail progress."
The report notes that in January, Pakistan requested that the World Bank appoint a "neutral expert" to help resolve the dispute under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and the World Bank has since said that a specialist soon be named. New Delhi called Islamabad's request "unjustified" and said that dam construction would continue.
"While separatist violence in Indian Kashmir is unabated and cost dozens of lives in recent weeks, Indian officials insist that rates of 'cross-border' infiltration by militants remain down significantly over previous years," the report observes.
The CRS points out that the end of the Cold War freed India-U.S. relations from the constraints of global bipolarity, but New Delhi-Washington relations continued for a decade to be affected by the burden of history, "most notably the longstanding India-Pakistan rivalry."
But the report says that "recent years have witnessed a sea change in bilateral relations, with more positive interactions becoming the norm."
Continuing U.S. interest in South Asia focuses on tension and conflict between India and Pakistan, "a problem rooted in unfinished business from the 1947 Partition and competing claims to the former princely state of Kashmir," the CRS notes also.
Explaining the U.S. policy on Kashmir, a Himalayan state disputed between India and Pakistan, the report says that Washington strongly encourages maintenance of a cease-fire and continued, substantive dialogue between the two South Asian nations.
On the nuclear issue, the report says, the United States seeks to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in South Asia. Both India and Pakistan, however, have resisted U.S. and international pressure to sign the major nonproliferation treaties.
The report says that the May 1988 nuclear tests led to U.S. sanctions on both India and Pakistan, but restrictions on India were gradually lifted through congressional-executive cooperation from 1998 to 2000. Remaining sanctions on India (and Pakistan) were removed in October 2001.
The United States also has been concerned with human rights issues related to regional dissidence and separatism in Kashmir, Punjab and India's Northeast region. "Strife in these areas has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, militants and security forces over the past two decades," CRS highlights.
According to the CRS, communalism has been another matter of concern for the United States, with early 2002 rioting in the Indian state of Gujarat resulting in up to 2,000, mostly Muslim deaths. The U.S. Congress, the State Department and international human rights groups have criticized India for perceived human rights abuses in these areas.
The United States supports India's efforts to transform its once "quasi-socialist economy" through fiscal reform and market opening.
Since 1991, India has been taking steps to reduce its budget deficit, privatize state-owned industries, and reduce tariffs and licensing controls. Coalition governments have kept India on a general path of economic reform, although there continues to be U.S. concern that movement has been slow and inconsistent.
Plans to expand U.S.-India high-technology trade and civilian space and civilian nuclear cooperation have become key bilateral issues in recent years. Along with dialogue on missile defense, these are addressed through the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership initiative formally launched in January 2004.
The CRS points out that the India-Pakistan peace initiative continues, most notably with Indian External Affair Minister Natwar Singh's February visit to Islamabad, where, in a major confidence-building development, India and Pakistan agreed to allow bus travel across the Kashmiri Line of Control. Singh concluded "extremely useful and intensive" discussions with his Pakistani counterpart and called India-Pakistan cooperation "not just a desirable objective; it is an imperative."
Later in February, top Indian and Pakistani officials opened two-day economic cooperation talks that the Indian commerce minister described as a "historic step" in bilateral relations, the report adds.
