American Secretary of state is headed to New Delhi, Bharat. Why is she going to Delhi?

Shakespeare could have been describing Hillary Clinton’s trip in a few words “”A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury–signifying nothing”". The rehtoric during the visit cannot hide the real intentions of Ms. Clinton.

Someone once described the Britishers “as a nation of shopkeepers”. Well, the Americans today are the best at putting together business deals.. The prime purpose of the visit is to make sure that Bharat does not pick Russian fighters. Ms. Clinton wants Delhi to foot the bill for thousands of jobs in America, and this trip will be to put pressure on Delhi to make sure that she does not buy Non-American merchandise. The Bharti media is ecstatic that she is not going to Pakistan. The media forgets the following facts:

1) The US just last week dumped Bharat at the G-8 summit when it imposed severe restriction on export of nuclear material to all the states that have not signed the NPT (which includes Bharat). In effect, the US-Bharti nuclear deal has huge holes in it. It will be a miracle if it survives the Hyde Amendment and the G-8 sanctions.

2) Hillary Clinton’s first trip was to China and that time she did skip Delhi.

3) There has been much rhetoric about taking the relationship to the next level, but nothing concrete has happened or will happen this week.

4) Much to the chagrin of Delhi, President Obama has stopped building Bharat as a counterwieght to China. In fact Hillary Clinton is the architect of a much closer relationship wth Beijing (Zinjiang not withstanding).

5) There has been little actual reponse to Delhi’s whining about Mumbai. While Bharat is incensed about the attack, the rest of the world has taken a big yawn on the subject.

6) To the irritation of Delhi, the US has tripled the aid package to Islamabad. The UK, and Japan have followed suit. The US is creating a Reconstruciton Opportunity Zone (ROZ) in parts of Pakistan, and the US Army has supplied toys to the Pakistan Army worth hundreds of millions of Dollars. 

India has long held contradictory views on China. Another big Asian country, India is frustrated that China’s rise has captured much of the world’s attention. Proud of its “advanced political system,” India feels superior to China. However, it faces a disappointing domestic situation which is unstable compared with China’s.

India likes to brag about its sustainable development, but worries that it is being left behind by China. China is seen in India as both a potential threat and a competitor to surpass. June 11th. Peoples Daily

The Pakistani-Chinese nexus is well known and the relatiionship has been growing for decades. There is nothing new in this relationship. The question arsies, why is Bharat doing all this at this juncture. Beijing thinks that Delhi is green with envy and doesn’t know how to deal with Chinese success.

There are long term implications of Bharat’s actions. Bharat has made military moves against China. This is a bad policy for Delhi. It will push China closer to Pakistan. These actions will surely deter US and European companies from doing business in Bharat. The fraying US Bharati relationship may be exacerbated by Delhi’s whining. Russia and Brazial certainlywill not want to deal with Delhi. Washington has a choice between Delhi and Beijing. Beijing holds about $1 Tirllion worth of US T-Bills. Delhi owns none. While Tata may own names that lose $500 million per year, it has nothing to show for the name. If push comes to shove, Washington will not antagonize China. Neither will Russia. Japan has been neutral all these years, and will stay that way. Delhi’s absurd policies  may even push the US closer to China.

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to Asia July 17-23, visiting India to try to deepen U.S.-Indian ties and then Thailand for a regional conference, the State Department said on Tuesday.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly ruled out the possibility of Clinton making any side trips to Afghanistan or Pakistan, where U.S. forces and allies are battling the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Clinton, who said last month U.S.-India ties were “past due for an upgrade”, is set to arrive in Mumbai on July 17 where Kelly said she would meet a cross section of Indian society and remember the victims of last November’s attacks on the country’s financial capital.

Clinton will then travel to New Delhi on July 19 to meet government leaders, opposition politicians, scientists and youth, before going on to Thailand where she is set to attend a regional meeting of Southeast Asian nations, Kelly said.  (Editing by Sandra Maler). Reuters

The Pakistanis have outmanuevered Delhi, and the Bhartis know it. They just can’t do anything about it.

Hillary Clinton deliberately did not visit Pakistan, because “K” is on her agenda. The US wants Bharat to back-off, and remove her forces from the Pakistani border. This allows the Pakistan Army to concentrate on the TTP etc. The US wants Bharat to lay low in Afghanistan and shut down or dramatically reduce the number of Consulate staff in Afghanistan. The US also wants to see a cooling down of Indo-Pak tensions. All these messages will be sent to Delhi–of course mingled in with a lot of claptrap about “terror” and “responsibility” and the like.

The US-Bharti relationship is on the decline and Delhi knows this. Delhi has been sacrificed on the alter of the Sino-American relationship. Even so both countries will be putting a good face on the short lived friendship. There will be a lot of smiles, and a plenty of photo-ops. There will be huge references to the Nuclear deal and a lot of talking about the sale of stripped down versions of discarded US planes–in essence a lot of fluff and no substance.