I’m really delighted to be amongst you today at the World Affairs Council, Los Angeles, and to have this opportunity to share a few thoughts with such a distinguished gathering.

I am especially pleased that I have been able to come to the West Coast during my current visit to your great country.  I recall my first and only visit before this to Los Angeles in 1991—that’s 12 years ago.  The West Coast of the United States is a testimony both to the immense diversity of your country and to the distinctive strengths of its diverse regions.  Thanks to Hollywood, we in India, like the rest of Asia and the world, are familiar with this part of the United States.  But from a geo-political point of view also, the West Coast has a special relation to Asia.  It is a reminder that the United States is not only an Atlantic nation linked to Europe, but also a Pacific nation linked to Asia.  I am mentioning this because it has an important bearing on the theme of my address today.

Friends, I have been asked today to speak on Indo-U.S. relations in a strategic perspective.  Generally, when we use the term “strategic,” we intend to convey a combination of meanings.  It refers to long-term goals as [opposed to] against immediate or short-term objectives.  It refers to important missions as [opposed to] relatively less weighty efforts.  It calls for a forward-looking orientation, as [opposed to] a weakness that often bogs nations down in problems and difficulties of the present.  It demands sustained and focused attention as [opposed to] episodic or sporadic consideration.  Since attainment of success carries a far greater importance in a strategic undertaking as [opposed to] a non-strategic one, it demands a clear roadmap and a carefully devised system of implementation.

Now, when I try to interpret what “strategic” can mean and what “periodic ad hoc” can mean I can even compare that with when I last visited the United States in January 2002; it was against a specific background.  It was against an attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001.  So my talks with the American leadership here were focused on one issue.  This time it has not been so.   

Let me pose some questions:  Is there a basis for a strategic perspective in the relations between India and the United States?  Do our two countries share a common view and a common set of values that require us to pursue certain long-term and important goals in the 21^st century and beyond?  Do these goals have any significance for the needs and concerns of the rest of the world?  Do we have a clear and broadly congruent understanding of these goals?  Can we create a roadmap for our undertaking?  And do our two countries feel strongly enough about achieving success in this undertaking?

As far as India is concerned, my answer to all these questions is in the affirmative.  And I can even say that during the three days that I have been in Washington talking to the leaders of the American government, I found a resonance even in their views of what I believe is common between India and the United States.  After all, we are two large and populous countries in the world.  Naturally, all big countries with significant populations are required to cooperate for the good of the world community.  We are not only large and populous, but we also share other attributes that are important for the good of the world community.  We are both democracies, a fact that has, historically, not sufficiently contributed to the depth and content of our bilateral relations.  If the 20^th century is going to be remembered for any one great achievement of humanity, apart from the spectacular advances in science and technology, it is the spread of freedom and democracy around the world.  Totalitarian systems [have] collapsed.  Many a dictatorship got demolished.  Who could have believed this even two decades back?  Many of you here must have read Frances Fukuyama’s The End of History, about how democracies are prevailing everywhere and how totalitarian systems are collapsing.

India, unlike many other developing countries, did not have to wage a struggle for democracy.  It became democratic as a natural corollary of attaining freedom from British rule.  I’m a person who was born before India became independent and who was in college at the time India got its independence and [heard] the kind of contemptuous observation that used to be made:  How can a country with such a large population, totally unlettered, illiterate, cut off from all means of modern communication who did not have even a newspaper to read, become a democracy?  In 1947 I remember there was no television in India.  Radio was there, but few had access even to a radio and were completely cut off from modern means of communication.  It was felt, “How can this country succeed as a democracy?”   There was a wide-spread belief that maybe because Nehru, the then-Prime Minister and the principal leader of India at the time of independence, his own commitment to democracy had made India also accept democracy, but after Nehru it would cease to be a democracy.  This was a conviction shared, by many scholars but I feel proud when I go abroad and speak on behalf of India. Apart from the other strides that India has been making, I’ve always felt most proud about the fact that for these 55 years it has been a strong, vibrant, vigorous, functioning democracy.

I remember towards the end of the ‘80s and the beginning of the ‘90s a Canadian television team came to Delhi.  I was, at that time, not in the government but I was president of my party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  They sought an interview with me and said that we are doing a series for Canadian television entitled “The Rise and Fall of Democracies Around the Globe.”  They said they would like to interview me on the subject because they felt greatly impressed at the manner in which democracy has functioned in India.  The first question that they posed to me was: “You have been in politics so many decades, what is your principal explanation as to why, in India, democracy has succeeded in contrast to most other developing countries where which were under colonial rule when they embarked on their path to freedom?  They started as democracies, but fell by the wayside to some of the other former authoritarian rule.  How is it that in India democracy has succeeded?”  I said the answer that strikes me immediately is that one of the most important ingredients of a successful democracy has been the ability of people to accept a different point of view, to be tolerant towards a diametrically opposite point of view, and this kind of tolerance is absolutely imperative.  In human history intolerance towards different points of view has been reflected most in the field of religion.  In religion, particularly, [tolerance] has been a trait which is not easy to come across in many countries of the world, so much so that even scientists elect to suffer because their scientific beliefs may not tally with what is suppose to be the religious belief at a given point of time.  Whereas in India there have been many points of view so far as religion is concerned, and yet all have been tolerated.  I would say that in India a different religious point of view is not just tolerated, it is respected. 

A scholar who believed in crass materialism said that people who tell you that there’s going to be a rebirth and to conduct yourself morally well in this life—it’s all nonsense.  Don’t believe in it, whatever is, is.  Therefore eat, drink and be merry.  Now, this scholar did not have to suffer because of this belief or because of this kind of preaching.  He was described as a rishi, as a great seer, as a great thinker, an original thinker. 

Therefore, as I said it’s not merely tolerance, but the sense of respect for a diametrically defined point of view.  When this was already part of the tradition of our country in the field of religion to transfer it to the field of politics or economics or social sciences, there was no difficulty of any kind.  Therefore it was said “All right.  Those who believe in socialism are fine; those who believe in capitalism they are also fine.  Let there be a debate and a discussion between the two and whichever is right will prevail.”  It is therefore that in India democracy was accepted very readily.  Those who believe in history, in ancient history, they will say that even in the period B.C. there were functioning small republics in India. 

At independence, India established a democratic policy with the constitution that enshrined the rights and liberties of people, blending them with age-old human values and a vision of social equality and justice. This early vision has blossomed into a firmly rooted secular, federal, multi-party political system.  People talk of India’s democracy with a sense of wonder.  The forging and consolidation of our political, economic and emotional unity in a vast and diverse land, with a population of over one billion people, has been an achievement that we can truly be proud of.  I believe it is also of some significance for the world.  While having an election in such a large population—each constituency, my own constituency [for example] has a population of slightly less than 2 million electors—it’s a huge thing.  We are proud of the fact that elections are held at regular intervals in India.  Not even once in the past 55 years has a change of government taken place through any kind of violence or undemocratic means.  As in the United States, the will of the people has always prevailed.

Both India and the United States are open societies, with constitutionally mandated and non-discriminatory civil liberties for citizens.  We both have a free and vigorous press, which we consider a pillar of our democratic system.  Both cherish and zealously guard freedom of thought, speech and association.  I should add here, with special emphasis, that we both also value freedom of faith.  Persecution on the basis of faith is alien to our cultures.

There is yet another important attribute we share.  We both are assimilative and integrative societies.  We do not believe in exclusivism and exclusion.  We not only tolerate diversity, but also celebrate it as a distinctive and enriching feature of respective national identities. Yet, in spite of all the diversity, there is a strong unity that defines both India and the United States.  At a time when the world is shrinking to a Global Village, when all countries are becoming increasingly inter-dependent on one another, it has become all the more necessary to recognize “Unity in Diversity” as a universal ideal, not applicable only to India and America.

One might wonder why these commonalities are important for a strategic relationship between our two countries.  My answer is that it is precisely these shared attributes that the world of the 21^st century is going to need in ever-greater measure.  Preserving and promoting these values is an important mission for any nation that possesses them, and for any two such nations to do so collaboratively.  This, I wish to submit, is a strong basis for a strategic relationship between India and the United States.

There is another basis, also.  Other factors apart, one of the tests of whether two countries can have a strategic relationship is whether their best minds resonate with each other, and also whether their ordinary citizens have a good feeling about each other.  On this yardstick the answer to the question, “can India and the USA have a strategic relationship?” is self-evident.  Even though geo-political factors sometimes affected our bilateral relations negatively, the world was divided into two power blocs.  There was a Cold War going on between them and various geo-political factors made India closer to Moscow than to Washington.  That created its own problems, had its own repercussions, had its own consequences.  Similarly, we know that the best representatives of India and the United States have always admired the intrinsic strengths of our two societies.  Now, for me, a great idol has been Swami Vivekananda, and when I think of Swami Vivekananda immediately the parliament of religions held in Chicago comes to mind—more than a century back.  The names of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore on the Indian side—and of Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Martin Luther King on your side—readily come to mind.

Friends, today the relations between India and the United States are characterized by an unprecedented dynamism and willingness on both sides to impart breadth and depth to them.  Several factors have contributed to this positive development.  I wish to mention a few of them.

First of all, the end of the Cold War, to which I just referred.  It meant the lifting of a distorting influence on our bilateral relations.  Wrong perceptions about India and her foreign policy had got accumulated in policy planning establishments in this country.  These have substantially disappeared in the past decade and more.  Yesterday I happened to meet U.S. Ambassador Dennis Cox, and I am told that he has written a book—Estranged Democracies—on Indo-U.S. relations.  He is writing another book now known as Engaging Democracies.  So our two countries used to be called “estranged democracies.”  Today, we are two “engaged democracies.”  High-level contacts have become frequent and substantive.  They have deepened the India-U.S. partnership and led to the emergence of a closer, qualitatively new and more purposeful relationship.  Regular consultations have been instituted in diverse fields and a framework established for exchange of views and cooperation.  The visit of President Clinton to India in 2000, the first by an American president in 22 years, was a landmark event in our bilateral relations.  The warmth with which our people received him spoke for itself.  In fact, I was witnessing how members of the Indian Parliament received President Clinton, not because of him as a person, but because, as I said, it more than proved the case that an American president had come to India.  It was a landmark event in our bilateral relations.  While in Washington a few days ago, on behalf of our Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I extended an invitation to President Bush to visit India, and we hope to welcome him soon in India.

The second factor that has contributed to the upswing in our bilateral relations is the growing profile of Indian-Americans in your country.  Not only has their number gone up rapidly over the past two decades, but also their achievement.  Seated here just now taking lunch I was told about how highly-educated most Indian-Americans are.  I said this is the problem that we are facing in our country today.  On the one hand we have a highly outstanding educated people and on the other hand we have a large sector of people who are not so privileged, who have not had that advantage, and who are totally unlettered—the gulf is very wide.  Even those who are unlettered have a solid sense of understanding and practical majority, which has enabled us, even with so many unlettered people, to function as a vigorous, effective democracy.  Reflecting the diversity of India, the community enjoys the distinction of being one of the highest earning and best educated in America.  They are loyal Americans, but they retain strong socio-cultural links with India.  They have contributed enormously to improvement of Indo-American relations, by networking with governments and political establishments in both countries.  Today, I wish to pay special compliments to them for their invaluable contribution.

There is a third factor, and it deserves to be dealt with at some length because it points to the immense opportunities that now exist for strengthening economic ties between India and USA.  Today there is a growing recognition around the world that India is a steadily emerging economic power in Asia with enormous strengths and opportunities in diverse areas.  The rising strength of India’s economy is an outcome of the policy of economic reforms.  These reforms, we can claim with legitimate pride, are being implemented without social turmoil or political upheaval.  Today there is complete political stability in the country.  Under the leadership of Prime Minister Vajpayee, the government of the National Democratic Alliance has completed five years in office.  Just for the sake of contrast I might mention that Vajpayee became the prime minister of India in 1998.  The ten years prior to that, from 1988 to 1998, India saw seven prime ministers whereas, from 1998 onwards until today and hopefully for many years more, India will continue to be led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Liberalization and opening up of the economy have unleashed the energies of our talented people and have taken the country to a higher trajectory of growth and prosperity.  To take only two examples, the revolution in production of food grains has made the country self-sufficient in food, with a growing export surplus.  The average life expectancy of an Indian has more than doubled since Independence.  In terms of purchasing power parity, India presently has the fourth-largest economy in the world.  The Indian economy is robust and healthy and has registered an average annual growth of 5-6 percent since 1992.  Simply put, India is already double the size of the economy it was ten years ago. Inflation has been restricted to low single digits; food grain reserves stand at a comfortable 46 million tons; foreign exchange reserves crossed 79 billion US dollars; merchandise exports are growing at a fast pace.

India has a well-developed banking system, a vibrant capital market, skilled manpower and professional management available at competitive rates; a strong, mature and dominant private sector, large manufacturing capabilities, a well-developed R&D infrastructure, competent technical and marketing services, and an independent judicial system for enforcement of contractual rights and obligations.

India’s development has not been merely more-of-the-same variety.  There have been fundamental shifts, which affect the quality of life of our people. India has achieved rapid strides in science and technology.  Remarkable successes have been made in our harnessing of nuclear science and space technology.  India has in position a system of satellite-based communications linking remote regions of the country.  It has made a giant leap forward, particularly in software development, and is acknowledged as an emerging IT superpower.

When I talk about India emerging as an IT superpower I recall I procured a book about Microsoft’s Bill Gates in the ‘80s, and this prompted me to visit Microsoft.  I was impressed first of all by the progress that was being made there in the field of software, in the field of multimedia, but what impressed me more was that more than 25 percent of the people working there were Indians.  This impressed me and I felt that here’s a field in which our country has immense potential.  The Indian economy is also being propelled by the service sector, in particular by knowledge-based industries.  Starting from scratch a few years ago, Indian software exports have reached 10 billion US dollars per annum.  By 2008, India’s software industry is expected to cross 87 billion US dollars with 50 billion US dollars coming from exports.  Information technology is gradually becoming India’s signature tune as it seeks to consolidate its position as an IT superpower even as it explores new areas of strength in fields like biotechnology and bio-informatics.

Yet so much still remains to be done.  The provision of safe drinking water, basic health facilities, universal literacy, electricity and other basic necessities of life, are among the formidable challenges facing India.

Other sectors where fresh investment is needed are hardly a secret—any visitor to India is immediately exposed to them.  For example, infrastructure (roads, ports, airports, railways, bridges) and energy (power, coal, oil and gas).  In most of these areas private sector involvement on a commercial basis is a relatively recent phenomenon.  We must move forward in these sectors as we raise our present annual economic growth rate a couple of notches higher.  Our government is determined to do so. I believe we enjoy the broad political consensus to make it possible.

In that context, it is deeply satisfying that India’s four largest metropolitan cities will soon be linked through a high speed “Golden Quadrilateral.” India’s northern and southern ends and western and eastern extremities will be connected through new highway corridors.  In scope, it is comparable to FDR’s great leap of faith in connecting America after the Second World War.  Similar quantum leaps are being made in other areas as well.  In the last few years, telephone connections and cellular phone subscribers have increased exponentially.

The insurance sector, too, has been opened up.  The government of India now permits 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in many new sectors, ranging from airports and urban infrastructure to drugs and pharmaceuticals, from hotels and tourism to mass rapid transit systems.  Even defense production, earlier the sole and exclusive preserve of the government, has now been opened to the private sector and 25 percent FDI is allowed as equity in Indian defense production units.  There are many significant new avenues in which American companies and businesses can cooperate with their Indian counterparts or invest in India.  We do not expect this as largesse. I am told by many American corporations that their investments in India, in diverse fields, are among their most successful and most profitable international operations.  This is truly a partnership for mutual benefit.

Liberalization of the Indian economy has also contributed to a steady improvement in India-US trade relations.  The post-1991 India-US trade pattern reveals several significant trends.  First, there has been a very notable increase in trade, which has more than doubled in the past five years.  Second, there has also been a shift in the pattern of trade, with a number of new items coming to the market.  Third, a more harmonious dialogue on trade and economic issues has emerged involving cooperation and consultation rather than confrontation and threats.  Being strong advocates of frontier technologies, we are often on the same side during international deliberations in new and dynamic areas like IT, biotechnology and entertainment industries.

Merchandise exports from India to the USA grew by 21.4 percent in 2002 compared to 2001.  This strong performance reflected the highest annual percentage growth in Indian exports to the USA over the past decade, and occurred against a backdrop of stagnant worldwide exports to USA in 2002.  Moreover, it took place despite concerns over trading with India due to the heightened tension in the Subcontinent and travel advisories against visiting India that were in place during mid-2002.  This trend has been largely maintained during the first quarter of 2003, when Indian merchandise exports to the USA have grown by nearly 20 percent while U.S. merchandise exports to India have grown by a further 26 percent on top of the 9 percent growth registered in 2002.  At the current pace, India’s merchandise exports to USA in calendar year 2003 should easily cross $4 billion, from $11.7 billion in 2002, while two-way India-U.S. merchandise trade should exceed $19 billion, compared to $15.9 billion in 2002.  If trade in services is added on, then the total two-way trade is set to reach $30 billion in 2003.

Growth has not always been restricted to trade and a number of U.S. companies operating in very diverse fields have quietly expanded their business and prospered in India.  Virtually every major American IT firm has a presence in India.  Over 250 of the Fortune 500 companies outsource their software requirements from Indian software houses.

Another noteworthy development in recent years has been that FDI is no longer unidirectional.  Investment by Indian companies in the USA has also been growing significantly in recent years.  As Indian corporations mature and become global players, we expect these trends to continue and grow.

Beyond the economic challenges facing India, there are certain hurdles in the security sphere that have to be overcome.  The biggest external threat to the country has been the wave of terrorism directed against it for over two decades.  Well over 60,000 innocent Indian lives have been lost in this madness.  Our people, Parliament, temples, aircraft, trains and buses have all been attacked.  The elderly, women and children, no one has been spared.  The sponsors and instigators of this terrorism hail from the same common pool that also provides the terrorists that have been active against the USA.  The epicenter of international terrorism lies in India’s immediate neighborhood.  It gives me no joy in pointing fingers, but the involvement of Pakistan can no longer been ignored.

India and the United States have to work in active partnership to defeat the menace of terrorism fueled by religious extremism.  I would say that this is an important component in the strategic relationship between our two countries, because jihadi terrorism is a threat not only to the security of our two countries, but to peace and tranquility around the world.

Friends, sometimes the barbarities committed by cross-border terrorism in India is sought to be rationalized and justified by invoking the issue of Kashmir.  The facts of history and the reality of today are well known to all objective observers of Indo-Pak relations.  The free, fair and inclusive elections we held in October last year in Jammu and Kashmir, despite determined attempts by the terrorists to sabotage them through violence, have impressed the entire world community.  But the infrastructure of cross-border terrorism remains in place as a result of the strong support that the terrorists receive by being aided, abetted and sponsored from abroad.  I would urge our neighbor, Pakistan, to heed the voices of sanity and give up its futile path of confrontation with India.  We are determined to see that the scourge of terrorism is decimated and that the population of Jammu and Kashmir can prosper and live in peace.

Prime Minister Vajpayee has once again extended a hand of peace to Pakistan.  It is up to them to demonstrate that they are sincere in implementing the promises that they have made to the U.S. and the international community that they will dismantle the jihadi terrorist infrastructure that they have spawned and fostered.

Friends, Prime Minister Vajpayee has often described India and the USA as natural allies.  This is the vision that inspires our leaders and our people as we partner each other in building a peaceful, democracy and economically prosperous world.  Not only are India and the USA allies in the cause of democratic but also in exploiting the potential of the new economy.  Our countries can harness our human, natural and knowledge resources to overcome older challenges—eradication of diseases, poverty, and human suffering—as well as the new ones that may emerge in the future.  A strategic partnership can become a reality only if the major strands in the relationship—political, economic, and military—are tightly woven together.  This is the purpose of my visit.

 The India-U.S. strategic partnership is clearly here to stay, and will grow stronger over the years.  Of course, differences will remain and we will continue to agree to disagree on certain issues.  But as befits two mature and forward-looking democracies, we will move forward on the basis of our shared values and views on a larger set of issues, ever mindful of the fact that cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies is essential for the peace, stability and prosperity of the world.  It is in our hands to make this partnership work closely and effectively.

 Thank you.