IndiaPost.com - Forget nam, join us, says Rice

WASHINGTON: The US has said the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), of which India is a leading member, has lost its meaning and indicated that New Delhi should "move past old ways of thinking and old ways of acting" to build the future of Indo-US relations.

"I know there are some who still talk about non-alignment in foreign policy. But, may be, that made sense during the Cold War when the world really was divided into rival camps," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here. She was addressing the 32nd anniversary celebrations of the United States India Business Council (USIBC) here on Thursday.

"It (non-alignment) has lost its meaning", she said sarcastically, adding "one is aligned not with the interests and power of one bloc or another but with the values of a common humanity." Talking about Indo-US relations, she said "the question that I would ask is, as fellow democracies with so many interests and principles in common at a time when people of every culture, every race and every religion are embracing political and economic liberty, what is the meaning of non-alignment?" She asked "how can we not afford to join each other", on a global scale, to support opportunity and prosperity and justice and dignity and health and education and freedom and democracy.

"In order to create a partnership for our future and to fully realize it, we are going to have to move past old ways of thinking and old ways of acting," Rice said in an apparent suggestion to India. Nuclear deal by year end Projecting the civil nuclear deal as "the first fundamental pillar" of Indo-US relations, Rice expressed confidence that the "win-win" agreement will be finalized by the year-end. She pointed out that negotiations on the deal were difficult but hoped the bipartisan support for it will help the 123 agreement, operational pact of the deal, go through the Congress.

"This is a huge step forward. We’re not quite there yet. But with will and determination and more hard work to do, I am certain that we will reach final agreement and be in a position to complete this deal by the end of the year," said Rice, who will be visiting India in about a month. "I think that this is a win-win (situation) if ever there were one," she said.

Terming the civilian nuclear deal as one of the "keys to the partnership", she said "the historic agreement" would lay "really, the first fundamental pillar for a US-India relationship that no one could have imagined many years ago." Rice said the agreement will open new doors of cooperation in the nuclear field. "It was only a matter of time before two leaders who were visionary enough realized that they had to break this particular logjam so that the US-India relationship can flourish," Rice said, adding "and I myself am dedicated to getting it done and we need to get it done by the end of the year."

"We have strong commitment on the part of both governments because we have strong commitment on the part of our leaders (to finalize the deal)," the US Secretary of State underlined. Rice said when President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "went down this road of trying to break the barriers to civil nuclear cooperation, they knew that it would be historic". The two leaders "knew that it would be path-breaking and therefore difficult. Had this been easy, it would have been done a long time ago," she said.

"We are talking about bringing into the international framework for non-proliferation a country that has a very good record on non-proliferation," she said. "We are talking about bringing into a framework that would allow civil nuclear energy cooperation a nation that has significant energy needs and would like to meet those energy needs while reducing its reliance on carbon-based sources of energy," Rice said.

"It is possible and when we have done this, we will open even more doors in business and science, in agriculture and development, for energy and the environment, and of course, perhaps most importantly, to help strengthen and safeguard international security" she said. She said the US wanted it to be done in a way that will make it possible for American companies to "become a vehicle for the realization of civil nuclear power in India."