NEW DELHI: The US State Department has unambiguously told India to mind her own business and not interfere in America’s bilateral relations with cither China or Pakistan.

The American snub follows an ill-timed and ill-advised demarche by the Indian Embassy in Washington to the State department drawing the Clinton administration’s attention to the need for sanctions against Pakistan for its purchase of ring magnets from China for Islamabad’s controversial nuclear program.

American officials told Indian diplomat’s in Washington in their response to the demarche that any sanctions imposed by the Clinton administration on China or Pakistan, if at all, will be determined by US legislation on nuclear proliferation. This made it a bilateral issue between the US on the one hand and China and Pakistan on the other, India figured nowhere in the picture and New Delhi should mind its own business, State department officials said.

The Indian demarche and the State department’s unambiguous reaction to it have infuriated the political leadership of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

It is understood that the Indian embassy in Washington made the demarche to the State department without clearance from either the political leadership in South Block or the PMO. Besides, they feel that the Indian mission should have taken up the matter, if at all, with either the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, John Holum or the Deputy Assistant Secretary in charge of arms control matters, Robert Einhom, instead of the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Robin Raphel.

Both the PMO and the political Leadership of MEA feel that the embassy has left India in an unenviable position and sowed the seeds of a controversy in the run up to the elections, which the Narasimha Rao government could have done without.

According to sources privy to the entire episode, the MEA first sounded out officials of the US embassy here on the effectiveness of an Indian initiative on the acquisition of ring magnets by Pakistan.

Aware of the possibility of a firm and forthright state department reaction to what is essentially a bilateral matter between the US on the one hand and China and Pakistan on the other, the American Ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, is understood to have dissuaded South Block from acting in the matter. It was then presumed that the matter was closed, but to the surprise of all concerned the Indian embassy subsequently sprang the demarche on the State department.

‘The strong reaction of the State department is believed to be the result of a growing perception within the Clinton administration and on Capitol Hill that the Indian embassy is trying to interfere in the internal affairs of the US on the one hand and trying to influence America’s bilateral relations with other countries.

 

In the final week of former ambassador Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s stay in ‘Washington, some American lawmakers urged the US Secretary of State. Warren Christopher, to protest to New Delhi over Ray’s partisan support for Senator Larry Presser’s reelection campaign.

There were also protests over a letter written by the Indian embassy in Washington on January 30 urging Indian Americans in New Jersey to vote against Representative Robert Torricelli, who is running for the Senate.

Most Congressmen who voted for the Brown Amendment had also been briefed by the State department that the arms supplies withheld to Pakistan were a bilateral matter between Islamabad and Washington and that India was trying to influence America’s foreign policy by campaigning against waiving the Pressler law.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 27, 1996