Lowered Standard and Dissatisfaction: PD Analysis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Lowered Standard and Dissatisfaction: PD Analysis

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Following the footsteps of Colin Powell some 20 days ago and shouldering the heavy task to persuade India and Pakistan to be on good terms, Richard Armitage, US Deputy Secretary of State paid a one-day visit to India on Aug. 23, 2002. Just like Powell's visit in July, the visit this time failed to get any better result than as anticipated.

Though the US tried its best to persuade India and Pakistan to make peace the best option yet India persisted in the opinion that the Pakistan so far hadn't honored its pledge by putting a check on the "cross-border terrorist activities". And so it insisted on rejecting the resumption of talks with Pakistan. Judging from this there sees no time for the normalization of relations between India and Pakistan.

Actually, what the media is interested in is not the result of the talk but the standard the India used in hosting the R. Armitage this time. India is by no means unfamiliar with Armitage, No.2 of the US State Department. Since he took up the post it's the third time for him to visit India and he has always been for the strategy to get India closer to the USA. Setting great store by his first two visits Indian high-ranking officials, such as Prime minister, minister of external affairs all came out to meet him. But this time things were different. There witnessed a downturn in the standard for reception that afforded people food for thought.

When Armitage went there for visit the Indian minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh was in Nepal for the ministerial meeting of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation and followed with his direct visit from Kathmandu to Bangladesh. In the meantime, Advani, Indian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, No. 2 head in the Indian government was then visiting the UK, canceling the original plan to visit the US. Whereas Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister though in New Delhi then did not meet him as did the previous two times. Instead, Indian minister of defense, national security advisor to Prime minister and secretary of external affairs was made to have talks with Armitage. At a crucial moment, the two heads of importance on Indian side failed to make their appearances. This has instigated a lot of guesses from the media here.

The guess is naturally centering round the recent development of the tripartite relations of the US, India and Pakistan. Some media held that in last May there occurred a great tension, a tension almost to trigger off a war between India and Pakistan. At the crucial moment Armitage paid a hasty visit to India and Pakistan in June. When his visit to Pakistan was put to an end he brought to the Indian leaders some satisfactory news, namely the Pakistan side pledged to put a check on the penetrating activities at the bordering areas and this has helped to reduce the tension between the two countries.

However, several months have elapsed India has been reprimanding that the Pakistan side did not carry out its promises and the bordering penetration activities were still going on. This has incurred a big interference to the election in the Indian controlled Kashmir area. To this, the Pakistan side made a flat denial about it. The two sides continued to harangue, airing each other's point of view.

The recent public opinion in India held that Pakistan should have long ago made its compromises to India if there was no such a big signboard, the frontline ally from the USA. The India's feeling has in a way turned into a kind of dissatisfaction with the USA and with Armitage himself and so the lowering standard in the reception is by no mean without reason.

Some other analysis considered that recently the big shots in the USA had an high opinion that Pakistan contributed a lot in the anti-terrorist war so as to strengthen the ties between the USA and Pakistan. And the USA would even like to restart the military sales suspended for dozen of years between the two countries, which has set India to feel unhappy.

India, as a big country in South Asia Subcontinent is on the absolute superior side as against Pakistan so far as its population, territory, resources, and economy and military affairs are concerned, and plus the similarity in ideological field it deserves to be more favored by the USA.

However, after the "9.11 Incident" the US has made a change from its former policy of "being close to India while keeping Pakistan at an arm's length" to being "putting the two on a par with each other" and even tilting somewhat to the latter because Pakistan played a unique and special role in the strategy. This has made India to intentionally lower the standard in the reception of Armitage to signal its dissatisfaction with the USA. It is a sort of maneuver in diplomacy.

A signed article published in the "Indian Financial Express" Aug. 23 said though India may become the USA companion in the long run in many possible ways, the element of Pakistan will keep the relations between the two countries in a quandary for quite a long time to come. The "naive optimism" for India to become the USA "natural ally" will be replaced by the "carefully considered realism". The unusual degradation in the reception perhaps can serve a footnote to the change to come.

By People's Daily Online

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