Architect of thaw in Us-india relations

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday joined the world in paying tribute to former PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and said he was among those who recognised early on that India and the US could develop a partnership for the benefit of the region and the world.

“Standing before the United States Congress in 2000, he famously characterised Us-india ties as a ‘natural partnership of shared endeavors’,” US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said in a statement. That visit was a landmark in many ways.

Together with former US president Bill Clinton’s visit to India earlier that year in March, it ended for good the chill in bilateral ties that had followed Vajpayee’s decision to conduct nuclear tests in 1998, which had angered the United States and other western powers and resulted in sanctions that are still being unravelled.

Final restoration of ties and India’s ultimate goal of being recognised as a nuclear power were still a few years away, but the seeds for that were sown during that 2000 visit. George W Bush, then Texas governor running for the White House as the Republican candidate, had sought a meeting with Vajpayee — the only one from among the hundreds of world leaders in town for the US general assembly session, Indian officials had then stressed. And India and the US would go on to sign a landmark civil nuclear deal some years down the line . That deal has since become a yardstick to measure the levels of warmth towards India displayed by succeeding administrations.

In another far-reaching impact of that 2000 visit, Prime Minister Vajpayee had described India and the United States as “natural allies” in a speech at a New York think-tank. That phrase would resonate for years in policy circles and go on to define the relationship between the two countries.

Several more phrases have been used since as ties have grown stronger, building on that “early” push from Vajpayee. “Today, our two countries and our bilateral relationship continue to benefit from Prime Minister Vajpayee’s vision, which helped promote expanded cooperation,” Pompeo said and added: “The American people and I stand with the people of India as we mourn Prime Minister Vajpayee’s passing. Today, we hold the people of India in our thoughts and prayers.”