The Indian prime minister visiting the White House today is a mild-mannered technocrat who has burst out of political obscurity to carry forward an economic and diplomatic revolution in the world's biggest democracy.
Now Manmohan Singh is looking to complete the post-Cold War, post-9/11 repositioning of his country by entering into a strategic partnership with the US.
"This is a watershed year in US-India relations," Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca is quoted as saying in a US Embassy report, published ahead of Singh's visit.
Singh's aides paint a sweeping canvas of issues for him and US President George W. Bush to discuss: the economics that are binding the US and India ever closer together; cooperation in generating nuclear power for the voracious needs of a nation of over 1 billion; collaboration in space research including joint launch of satellites and an Indian mission to moon; India's bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council; waging the war on terrorism.
Then there are weapons deals, intelligence-sharing, cyber-security, collaboration in biotechnology and nanotechnology, "and what the two countries can offer as democracies to the rest of the world," said Sanjaya Baru, Singh's media adviser.
"We have been talking, and working, about a strategic partnership. Now is the time to make it happen," he said.
Singh will spend 90 minutes with Bush, then meet Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and be Bush's guest at a banquet and jazz concert.
Tomorrow, he will address a joint session of the US Congress, giving US lawmakers an opportunity to learn more about a leader who is little known in Western public at large since becoming prime minister 14 months ago.
Singh, the first Sikh to become India's prime minister, was a surprise candidate, but already familiar to business leaders who admire him for setting off India's transformation into a market economy in the early 1990s when he was finance minister.
It was the economics professor's first political job and it lasted five years, until his Congress party lost power in 1996. He then kept a low profile until last year, when a tumultuous election toppled Vajpayee and returned Congress to office.
To many, Singh is a gentleman politician who looks out of place in the sharp-edged world of Indian politics. He is a dour leader by Indian standards, but has impeccable credentials as an efficient and clean administrator. He has few enemies in politics, and his first year in office has seen few scandals or religious riots.
Singh's ascent has come at a time when India's world view -- and the way the world views India -- is undergoing a seismic shift.
India now sees itself as an emerging world power. Washington sees New Delhi as a potential ally to counter China and its growing political and military influence in the Indian Ocean rim. Its booming software sector is now the back-office hub of US multinationals. International agencies forecast the Indian economy -- one of the world' fastest growing in the past decade -- will get into the top five by mid-century at the latest.
A report issued this week by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and written by Ashley Tellis, a leading US expert on Asia, is titled India as a New Global Power.
It urges Washington to support India's bid for a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council, recognize it as a nuclear-weapon state instead of nagging New Delhi to sign the nonproliferation treaty, and enter into a "comprehensive defense partnership."
Washington should help India to build nuclear power plants to bridge its widening energy deficit and stop complaining about its attempts to build a pipeline to bring gas from Iran, it says.
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