NEW DELHI, June 5 (UPI) -- India's new foreign minister is considering purging his Congress Party of close ties to U.S. think tanks, The Hindu newspaper reported Friday.
Foreign Minister Natwar Singh "enjoys perfect harmony with the new Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh," The Hindu said. "But he has a problem with some people in his own party. And he thinks that those Congressmen who are associated with American outfits such as RAND or ASPEN group must resign their membership" in such bodies, the paper said.
U.S. news reports have overwhelmingly described Singh as being determined to maintain the unprecedented close ties, especially in the military sphere that the previous right wing, nationalist government led by former prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had established, with the Bush administration.
But The Hindu said Singh wanted to see current U.S. global dominance to be supplanted by a more universal, consensus global leadership. It quoted Singh as asking, "Once there was a Pax Romana,; then Pax Britannica; later Pax Americana; why not now a Pax Planetica?"
