India & U.S. Forge Long Term Strategy

Now that the US-India strategic dialogue has had its inaugural meeting, how does the state of the relationship between the world's largest two democracies look? Not different from the uncertain shape it was before the dialogue, say sceptics. Not bad at all; the dialogue yielded results, say optimists.

Given the reality of today's geopolitics, the optimists are probably right. To start with, the atmospherics were great. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton made special efforts to make the Indians feel good. Not only did she and her colleagues make the right noises at the dialogue, she threw a spanking good party at the state department on June 3. When she strode into the hall at 5 o'clock with the president of the United States in tow, the crowd looked impressed. She spoke warmly and wrote an oped the next day in this newspaper. President Barack Obama, looking surprisingly relaxed given the pummelling his administration is receiving on several fronts, spoke glowingly of the relationship and ribbed Clinton on her fondness for Indian food. When he announced he would visit India in November, the Indians present clapped loudly.