LAHORE: Senior analyst Najam Sethi on Sunday said US President Barrack Obama’s previous and the current visit to India could be described as symbolic. However, he said, the two sides would also discuss some core issues so that there was progress in strategic ties and the visit didn’t represent symbolism only.Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif’s trip to China too was symbolic in nature to some extent but, at the same time, it was a message to India and the US, he added. Sethi said the main issue in the US-India relations was how India would fit into US-China and US-Pakistan ties. The US aimed at an US-India-Japan alliance against China for which Australia was also an aspirant, but New Delhi didn’t share the objective due to an extensive under progress deal with Beijing, he added. He noted that India was going to adopt gamesmanship by telling China that they would join the group, if mutual issues were not finalised.Expressing his views in the Geo News programme ‘Aapaski Baat’ hosted by Muneeb Farooq, Sethi said the US would tell India that Pakistan was taking action against terrorists and also helping in ensuring peace in Afghanistan and that they would not be able support New Delhi in case Pakistan was destabilised. However, India wouldn’t listen to the advice and follow its own line of action, he predicted. Sethi said it was symbolic in a sense that Obama was the first US president to visit India twice and attend the Republic Day parade. Also, Obama wrote in the visitors book that India was a peaceful country while mentioning Mahatma Gandhi, which would also affect the Indo-Pak relations, he added. Sethi said the progress in arms sale deal and operational military exercises would be slow, adding that the US wanted India to buy weapons worth at least $100 billion against the actual procurement of $10 billion in the last five years. According to Sethi, India wants to buy arms but is also demanding transfer of technology -- a move for which the US isn’t usually ready easily. On the other hand, India is silent on the US proposal concerning joint operational exercises. As per reports about the breakthrough in civil-nuclear deal, the US will now agree not to track the fuel obtained by India but New Delhi will have to share information about the source.Previously in 2008, the US had imposed a condition in the agreement on nuclear fuel supply that it would keep a check on the fuel. Although, India had agreed to the condition, it said they would not allow checking the supplies from any other source.Sethi said the US was pursuing an agreement with India on controlling the environmental pollution caused by industries and it would be considered a great success of Obama, if India agreed to the suggestion. The current volume of US-India trade, he said, stood at $100 billion while both the countries were eyeing a target of $500 bn which wasn’t easy because of some hurdles including the inability to finalise the civil-nuclear deal and the issues of transfer of technology in defence deals and renewable energy. According to Sethi, there was a time when the US wasn’t even ready to issue visa to Modi but things changed as soon as he assumed the office. The same has been the case in Pakistan where Modi faced criticism continuously, but Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended his swearing-in after his success in Indian elections.
