South Asia Of Increasing Importance To
United States
by Karl Inderfurth, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia
Kathmandu -- President Clinton's visit to South Asia last March - the first such trip in
over two decades - combined with other high level visits to and from the region,
demonstrate the growing importance of South Asia to the United States. This change is a
significant part of redefining U.S. foreign policy for the 21st century, post-Cold War
world. And because this change is so much in line with larger U.S. national interests, and
enjoys such broad support across the political spectrum, I am confident that it will
endure
long beyond the current Administration.
Countries throughout South Asia are increasingly important potential partners for the
United States on a whole range of crucial emerging issues: from global peace to global
climate change, from cutting-edge technological cooperation to common cause against the
age-old ills of disease and poverty or the new scourges of international terrorism and
weapons of mass destruction. As part of this broader engagement, our economic officials
are working with regional partners to create better global regimes for -commerce and
biotechnology, while our technicians explore clean energy options to preserve our shared
environment. Our doctors and scientists are collaborating in government-supported projects
to fight HIV/AIDS and other killer diseases, with public health programs and research on
new preventive vaccines. Our diplomats are working to narrow our differences on
nonproliferation issues, which will help make the whole world safer. And our experts are
discussing greater cooperation in international peacekeeping, to keep today's trouble
spots from becoming tomorrow's crises. While some have misinterpreted our expanding
regional ties as a desire to "tilt" our policy towards India, the reality is
that our overall strategy is to improve relations with the South Asian region as a whole,
according it higher prominence and priority in the overall U.S. approach to the world.
The fact is that during the second Clinton Administration there has been an unprecedented
series of high-level American visits to the region, and of return visits by South Asian
leaders. The list includes not just Presidents and Prime Ministers, but also foreign
ministers and ministers of commerce, finance, energy and senior officials dealing with
public health, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, and many other common concerns. What
explains this new American tilt toward South Asia? The answer is simple. We recognize
that, as an increasingly dynamic region that is home to more than one-fifth of humanity,
the futures of South Asia and of the United States are inevitably linked. This is already
true in more areas than ever before, from trade and commerce, to science and technology,
to global environmental and medical progress -- and also, to an ever greater extent, in
terms of people-to-people ties of kinship and culture between our proudly diverse
societies. Looking ahead, we also recognize the enormous potential of the vast South Asian
region, especially if it can forge a future free of the tragic elements of its past. I
have in mind particularly the regional, ethnic, or religious conflicts that have cost far
too many precious lives and resources.
We can also imagine a future in which the peoples and nations of this region move toward
greater cooperation and better integration into the global political and economic
mainstream, and are able as a result to focus more sharply on their own social and human
needs. Part of this process, we believe, could be advanced through regional organizations,
such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Other promising
prospects are offered by more specialized cooperative ventures like the South Asian
Regional Initiative on Energy (SARI), which could help in harnessing the region's huge but
untapped cross-border markets for hydropower, natural gas, and other resources highlighted
during President Clinton's visit. And another crucial part of South Asia's upward
trajectory, we are convinced, will be a stronger engagement and wherever possible a closer
partnership with the United States.
With all this in mind, the United States will keep looking for new opportunities to
strengthen our ties with every nation in the region, each on its own merits - from Nepal
in the north to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the south, and everything in between. It
used to be said that South Asia was on the backside of the U.S. diplomatic globe. No
longer. That globe is beginning to turn. From here forward, we hope to have strong and
growing relationships across South Asia, which promises to take its rightful place higher
on the scale of American foreign policy priorities in the years ahead.
Text courtesy USIA, Kathmandu. |
