Hillary Clinton and India

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently visiting us here in India. She's been busy with talks with the Indian government, so we haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. Obviously the big reason for being here is to strengthen the relationship between the United States and India. To his credit, George Bush built up a strong relationship between the United States and India, and I think it is important that Hillary Clinton is making a visit here to India. Perhaps the two biggest issues at hand are emissions standards and India-Pakistan relations.

The former is important because as India rapidly industrializes, it will increasingly output a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. The pollution of Indian cities hasn’t reached the level of many Chinese cities (apparently 16 of the 20 cities with the worst air quality are in China), but it is still very bad. The air in Pune always has a rancid odor to it, and my lungs rebel every time I try to go running. I don’t care what you think of global warming—India needs to clean up the air in its cities. The United States and other Western powers have been pushing for India to enact emissions standards to help curb the level of pollutants that are output. However, India has dug its heals in and refused to set mandatory emissions standards, under the pretense that they should be able to be able to follow the same path to industrialization as the West did—a path that lacked the emission standards the West wants India to follow.

In the short term, tougher environmental measures will be difficult to implement, detrimental to economic growth, and won’t change air quality overnight. In the long run, however, I think the United States has a point. “Green” technology may prove to be one of the most promising new fields of growth, and if a country is able to be at the cutting edge of that technology, it will make them far more competitive in a global economy. Better air quality has the happy side effect of a healthier and happier population.

The latter issue being addressed here in India is the relationship between India and Pakistan. It is no secret that India and Pakistan are bitter rivals, and there have been several points where war between the two nuclear powers seemed imminent. We are no longer at that point, and since last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the two countries have come a long way in talks. The United States has a delicate relationship with the two countries. The United States relies on Pakistani support for the war effort, and India is a valuable trading partner. It is obviously in the best interest of the United States that the two countries stay out of a war.

Hopefully these discussions will prove fruitful in advancing talks between the two countries. Pakistan and India have a long history—a history that is not easily forgotten. It is perhaps surprising, then, that along with Bangladesh, the three countries were all part of British India. When India declared its independence, the Muslim parts of British India became Pakistan, and the Hindu parts became India. However, some states had difficulty going one way or the other. The most notable of these states was Kashmir, which had a Hindu ruler and a largely Muslim population. The two nascent nations started quarreling over the rights to the land, and relations between the two countries deteriorated into periodic war.

Since then, several major events have kept the relationship hostile. India backed a rebellion in Bangladesh that led to the separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan, forming a third nation from the former British India. Despite worldwide efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, neither India nor Pakistan signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and both have developed and tested nuclear weapons. Finally, late last year, pro-Pakistan militants executed a terrorist attack in Mumbai. Such violence has been endemic to the region for some time, but hopefully through mutual cooperation, the two nations can come to an agreement.

In essence, the United States has to walk a fine line in its relationship with India. On one hand, it is important that the strong relationship built over the past decade be kept intact. I’ve said before that India is the natural Asian ally of the United States (unlike China), and that importance cannot be overestimated. On the other hand, the United States has strategic interests to the west of India in Pakistan and Iran. Furthermore, environmental problems will ultimately harm more than just India, but the rest of the world. It is hard to convince a nation feeling the thrill of economic success that it take measures that seem counterproductive to its growth, but that is exactly what needs to happen, and that is why Hillary Clinton is visiting us here in India.