INDIA After decades of ill-considered mutual indifference, the US and India are finally taking each other seriously. Perhaps that will come to be seen as one of the most significant achievements of the late and unlamented Bush administration. But the first official visit by Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state to Mumbai and Delhi will not be plain sailing. Building trust between the world’s two greatest democracies will call for concessions from both sides.
The bilateral relationship has certainly been transformed. Two-way trade boomed during the Bush years, up from $30bn to almost $60bn between 2004 and 2007. The biggest stumbling block – India’s nuclear programme – has become a source of co-operation on civil nuclear energy. Defence is a growth area for collaboration, as is counter-terrorism. Mrs Clinton’s symbolic gesture of staying at the Taj Palace hotel in Mumbai, the most prominent target of November’s terror attack, will be much appreciated by ordinary Indians.
