美印新关系报告.docx

1、美印新关系报告ROBERT BLACKWILL: I think well begin here. Friends, colleagues, welcome to the Council on Foreign Relations.Could you first turn off your magic machines? Because they confound the sound system. So if youll all do that - and most of you will, and a phone will ring, as we know, empirical eviden

2、ce suggests. So if youll do that.Second, this is on-the-record, this session. And Im Bob Blackwill, the Henry Kissinger senior fellow at the council. And as you know, were here this evening to discuss the report that if our logistics worked, you found on your chairs a report on the U.S.-India relati

3、onship writ large - just a few words about that. And we hope youll look at it carefully when you have time.We established this partnership with Aspen Institute India in the late spring and began this report with the 17 people, some of the five or six of the 17 up here, in May, and finished it at the

4、 end of August. It was quite intense. We met in New Delhi in May to discuss it, its broad parameters. And then we went through, by my count, five iterations of the text in which everybody was chiming in with the way they saw the issues that are addressed in the report. And were going to get into the

5、 substance of that in the course of this evening.I would like to say on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations what a delight it has been to work with Aspen India and my old dear friend Tarun Das. We really have established, through this group, a very, very close comradeship both between us, the

6、 Council on Foreign Relations and Aspen India, but also among the 17 participants in this endeavor. And Im delighted to let you know that its been such a success that were going to continue this collaboration in an organizational sense over the long term.We had a kick-off in New York at the end of l

7、ast week. We had a gala dinner with Henry Kissinger as our keynoter last Thursday night. And the report is also on the CFR website if you wish to get it in that way rather than the hard copy that you have in front of you.So with those brief opening remarks, let me ask Tarun to give the Aspen India p

8、erspective on the report and on the endeavor.TARUN DAS: Thank you, Bob. And just to say that we did a similar event in Delhi on Saturday morning, so half our team stayed back for that - in fact, the leader, Naresh Chandra, and Dr. Raja Mohan and Mr. Brajesh Mishra - which went well. Theres been wide

9、 reporting of the report in India over the last two days.For us, from Aspen India, its been a great experience working with the CFR and the outstanding team on the U.S. side. I need to pay tribute to one member of the Indian team who is here, Ambassador Shankar Bajpai, that though Naresh Chandra was

10、 the leader of our team, the real driver and the person who hit everybody on the head, on the Indian side, was Ambassador Shankar Bajpai. And hes good at that; hes particularly good at hitting everybody on the head and getting work done. And we are all terrified of him. (Laughter.)And as Bob Blackwi

11、ll said, we hope to continue this relationship. Weve had conversations about that with Richard Haass and Bob in New York, and more of that will emerge later.Key issue: deep commitment to a strong Indo-U.S. relationship. And thats where we are coming from. We hope this report is debated, questioned,

12、discussed, criticized, commented upon and whatever. And we look to you to ask questions.One member of the team I see in the audience eating. And I thought I just mentioned Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, who is there, way back in the hall. Pramit, youre not supposed to eat now. (Laughter.) Youre supposed to l

13、isten.Back to you, Bob.BLACKWILL: Well, thank you. And let me just be a little bit more specific. Send all of your criticisms to Tarun and all of your salutes to me, if you could just proceed in that way. (Laughter.)We are especially honored tonight to have the new Indian ambassador to the United St

14、ates, Nirupama Rao, here with us. She is a Washington hand? from the past. She knows the crazy Americans quite well. We couldnt be more happy that the Indian government has sent her here. I think most of you know she comes here from being foreign secretary of the Indian Foreign Ministry, the highest

15、 civil servant in the ministry. So Id like to ask her, if she would, to come to the podium and say a few words. But were very honored that, busy as she is, I think shes only been here two or three weeks, shes joined us tonight.So, Ambassador.DAS: I want to add - (applause). Nirupama, I just want to

16、add to the ambassador: The Indians welcome. Were delighted that youre here, and great to have you. Thank you.AMBASSADOR NIRUPAMA RAO: Thank you. Thank you very much.Ambassador Blackwill and dear friends, thank you so much for inviting me to the launch of your report, the report of the study group th

17、at you, Ambassador Blackwill and Ambassador Naresh Chandra, have co-chaired. I know this report is a distillation of the wisdom, the knowledge and the experience of a very distinguished group of strategic thinkers in both our countries who have made an invaluable contribution to the transformation o

18、f the India-U.S. strategic partnership. And it is therefore an honor and a privilege for me to speak before such a distinguished gathering.I know that you are well-aware that the India-U.S. bilateral engagement has witnessed a remarkable evolution, a remarkable transformation in recent years. And it

19、 has, indeed, matured into a strategic partnership of global dimensions. And this is a fact that you acknowledge in your report also.This is a multifaceted strategic partnership based on our converging strategic and economic interests on a number of issues, vibrant ties between our peoples, our busi

20、nesses and of course our shared values as two of the worlds largest democracies.This report, which Ive glanced through, identifies several such converging strategic, geopolitical and economic interests, including our common desire to promote peace and security in Asia, combatting the threat posed by

21、 terrorism, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, issues relating to climate change and the linked issue of energy security which is vital for Indias development, and our shared interest in maintaining stability in the global economy.Its not my intention to comment on the poli

22、cy prescriptions that the report advocates on various issues, but Id like to share with you briefly the advances that we have made in promoting cooperation on some of the strategic issues mentioned in your report. For instance, we have intensified our dialogue and our consultations on the strategic

23、situation in our neighborhood. Given our shared interest in a stable, a democratic, prosperous and independent Afghanistan, we have agreed to have regular consultation, cooperation and coordination to achieve that objective.We are also looking, India and the United States, at joint projects in Afgha

24、nistan in areas such as capacity building, agriculture and womens empowerment, in addition to our independent and individual assistance programs that are already under way.Both our countries, India and the United States, have a shared interest in ensuring that the rapid changes in the Asia-Pacific r

25、egion promote overall peace, security and prosperity. We have therefore strengthened our strategic consultations on developments in the Asia-Pacific. We will soon have our first trilateral dialogue between India, the United States and Japan.We in India have always advocated an open and inclusive sec

26、urity architecture, regional security architecture and economic cooperation framework for Asia-Pacific. In this context, we have welcomed the inclusion of the United States in the East Asia summit process. We have launched new dialogues, both our countries, to exchange views and perspectives on deve

27、lopments in Central Asia and in West Asia.Terrorism remains a common challenge to our peace and security. To meet this challenge, we have intensified our counterterrorism cooperation, including through intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation and capacity building. The lau

28、nching of the Homeland Security Dialogue earlier this year provides an overarching framework to further deepen such cooperation.Additionally, weve taken measures to strengthen our partnership in clean energy, including solar energy, advanced biofuels, shale gas and smart grids. This leads me to the

29、question of: How do we ensure the security of our energy supplies? Both our countries have a shared interest in promoting maritime security cooperation to ensure unimpeded commerce, freedom of navigation and ensuring safety and security of sea lanes of communications. India has demonstrated its will

30、ingness and its capability to work with other international partners, including the United States, as a net provider of security.Our commercial and economic ties have also grown steadily in a mutually beneficial manner, creating jobs and prosperity in both our countries. Clearly, weve made good prog

31、ress, but we are determined to do better. And in this context, I feel that this report, which focuses on important geopolitical and geo-economic issues that both our countries face today and lays out a practical agenda to promote our shared interests, is very timely and makes a valuable contribution

32、 to the wider discourse that is ongoing in both our countries on how to further deepen and strengthen our strategic partnership. It would, I am sure, be helpful to policymakers in both our governments.Id also like to make a few additional points which I believe are important to ensure the healthy development of our relations. It is evident that we have converging interests, but it is likely and natural that in some instances we would have a difference of views in our approaches to achieve those interests. There is a tenden