India holds key in NATO's world view (pressures on to sign up)

[lovuian]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IJ06Df03.html
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As NATO steps up its courtship of India, Delhi too will have to think about the kind of relationship it desires. Not surprisingly, when Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoof Scheffer met in New York on September 28, both sides chose to keep their landmark 45-minute meeting on a low key.

Washington genuinely seeks a NATO-India partnership. As NATO retools for the 21st century for new missions in Africa and South Asia, and as it advances across the Middle East toward the Indian Ocean, looking for global partnerships (numbering 20 at present), India inevitably figures in its agenda. This became starkly evident last month.
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NATO woos India
Thus, a matrix is developing. As far as Delhi is concerned, at the root of it lies the problem that India is unable to come to terms with China's phenomenal rise. The talk in Tokyo and Canberra that they do not want a "unipolar" situation emerging on Asia's strategic chessboard easily finds resonance in Delhi.

The meeting between the Indian foreign minister and the NATO secretary general in New York last week should be viewed against a huge backdrop rather than the limited canvas of Afghanistan. The NATO-India consultation has so far remained unpublicized at the official level. Delhi has traditionally lacked a "bloc mentality" and Indian public opinion largely militates against the idea.
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What a gem India would be in the Nato family and this has been Bush's plan all along