DTN News: Washington Pins Hopes On India Fighter Deal

DTN News: Washington Pins Hopes On India Fighter Deal

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including By Edward Luce in Washington and James Lamont in New Delhi - FT.com

(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - October 3, 2010: The US administration is stepping up pressure on India to buy US military hardware five weeks ahead of Barack Obama’s first state visit to India.

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and Robert Gates, the defence secretary, have pressed AK Antony, the Indian defence minister who is on a two-day visit to Washington, to opt for US bids to supply more than 100 multi-combat fighter aircraft to India. The project – worth up to $11bn – is the world’s largest pending military hardware deal.

“We think we have the finest military hardware in the world, and if India is upgrading its defence capabilities, they should buy American,” PJ Crowley, a state department spokesman, said following Mr Antony’s meeting with Mrs Clinton. “Our understanding is that some of those decisions are coming up fairly soon.”Lockheed Martin and Boeing are among six foreign companies that India is evaluating, and winning the work would create or save thousands of US jobs.

The selection of one of the US fighter jet bids would help cement a growing alignment of two of the world’s largest democracies, a political bond that Mr Obama will stress heavily on his visit.

US officials say privately it would also take the sting out of the recent Indian nuclear liability law, which would make suppliers, as well as operators, liable for any accidents at Indian civil nuclear plants.

One of the main selling points of the controversial 2008 US-India civil nuclear agreement, concluded by George W. Bush’s administration but upheld by Mr Obama, was that it would create a huge flow of business for US companies in India’s planned civil nuclear expansion. The deal gave India access to civil nuclear technology and material without requiring it to renounce its nuclear weapons or join the non-proliferation treaty. But the passage last month of India’s nuclear liability law, which US companies describe as draconian, has put paid to such hopes.

Washington’s hopes of achieving a big commercial “deliverable” from next month’s presidential visit are now pinned on the fighter jet deal. There is also hope that India might conclude a deal to buy 10 C-17 transport aircraft from Boeing in time for the state visit as part of a package worth as much as $3.5bn.

Indian defence analysts say the world’s largest democracy faces a choice of turning more to the US for sophisticated defence equipment or maintaining supplies from Russia, its traditional defence partner, whose maintenance and spare-parts support has weakened since the collapse of the Soviet Union. New C-17s would replace an ageing fleet of Russian Ilyushins. Likewise, any new fighters would replace Sukhoi and Mig jets.

New Delhi, however, wants the US to ease technology controls on its defence exports to give it access to more advanced technology. It also seeks assurances from Washington that US military support for arch-rival Pakistan in the fight against Islamist militants cannot be used against India.

“There is a great deal of focus in Washington on achieving commercial results to announce during the Obama visit,” said Tezi Schaffer, a south Asia expert at the Center for International Strategic Studies in Washington. “But the more important aspect to the trip may be in the quieter conversations about strengthening the India-US strategic relationship.”

US officials have been struggling to come up with initiatives that would cement ties with India in the knowledge that nothing could emulate the drama of the Bush administration’s nuclear agreement, which brought India’s nuclear programme out of international isolation. US officials are also aware of lingering Indian sensitivities about the Obama administration’s initial overtures to China at a time of growing friction between Delhi and Beijing.

Mr Antony, the latest of many senior Indian officials to visit Washington, reiterated demands for the US to drop Indian companies from its “entity list” requiring approval to import US technology.

The US could also back India’s aspirations to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. However, there are divisions within the administration on how far Washington should go.

“There is a camp within the administration, particularly at the state department, that understands India’s huge geostrategic importance to America, and there is a camp that is much more sceptical and wants first to see the pay-off to the nuclear deal,” said a senior India lobbyist.

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com Disclaimer statement Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein, DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions expressed herein are those of the author of the page and do not necessarily represent the corporate views of DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News.

DTN News: German Chancellor Angela Merkel Still World's Most Powerful Woman: Forbes

DTN News: German Chancellor Angela Merkel Still World's Most Powerful Woman: Forbes

*Source: DTN News / AFP

(NSI News Source Info) NEW YORK, USA - August 20, 2009: German leader Angela Merkel and businesswomen dominate Forbes magazine's new list of powerful women, while First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't break the top 30. German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party waves during a CDU pre-election party on German's North Sea island Norderney on August 17, 2009. Merkel and businesswomen dominate Forbes magazine's new list of powerful women, while First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't break the top 30. Merkel headed the list, published Wednesday, for the fourth year running, with the magazine highlighting her role as leader of the huge German economy and her likely re-election in September. Reflecting the world's focus on recession and the struggle to keep the financial markets afloat, Merkel was followed almost exclusively by businesswomen. In second place came Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which insures US banks. Third was Indra Nooyi, chief executive at PepsiCo, then Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, and Ho Ching, chief executive at Singapore's government investment company Temasek Holdings. Hillary Clinton slipped from 28 last year, when she was close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination to 36, despite heading the powerful US State Department. Michelle Obama came into the list for the first time. Although she has the ear of the US president around the clock, she ranked only 40. Below her, at 42, came Britain' Queen Elizabeth II. Herewith the full top 10 in the list on www.forbes.com/women : 1: Angela Merkel, chancellor. Germany 2: Sheila Bair, chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. US. 3: Indra Nooyi, chief executive, PepsiCo. US. 4: Cynthia Carroll, chief executive, Anglo American. UK. 5: Ho Ching, chief executive, Temasek Holdings. Singapore 6: Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive, Kraft Foods. US. 7: Ellen Kullman, chief executive, DuPont. US. 8: Angela Braly, chief executive, WellPoint. US. 9: Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive, Areva. France 10: Lynn Elsenhans, chief executive, Sunoco. US.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Says Pakistan Abdicating To The Taliban

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Says Pakistan Abdicating To The Taliban

*Analysis: What is Pakistan administration real motive on this episode? And is Pakistan a failed state or in the process of being? The whole world is being held hostage on the wimp of a few Islamic militants and Pakistan administration is taking it for a joy ride and at the same time requesting for a financial bail out from the international donors.

What are the real motives of Pakistan's Zadari administration? The most worrisome factor, if elements of Pakistan forces side with Taliban and handover the equipment it would be the biggest disaster in mankind. China US and other countries should rethink of resupply of military equipment to Pakistan. (DTN Defense-Technology News)

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - April 22, 2009: Pakistan's government has abdicated to the Taliban in agreeing to impose Islamic law in the Swat valley and the country now poses a "mortal threat" to the world, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Wednesday that Pakistan's policy of ceding territory to Islamic extremists poses a serious threat that cannot be overlooked. During testimony before the foreign policy committee in the House of Representatives, Clinton called on Pakistanis "to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents, to the Taliban, to Al-Qaeda, to the allies that are in this terrorist syndicate". Taliban militants in Pakistan's Swat valley have continued to extend their authority since last week's agreement with the government allowing the militants to impose strict Islamic codes on the population in the northwest region. Surging violence across Pakistan and the spread of Taliban influence through its northwest are reviving concerns about the stability of the nuclear-armed country, an important U.S. ally vital to efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama, who on March 27 unveiled a new strategy that seeks to crush al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and those operating from across the border in Pakistan, meets the presidents of both countries May 6-7. The talks illustrate U.S. anxiety that Afghanistan could again become a haven for al Qaeda militants to launch foreign attacks more than seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered the September 11 attackers. Speaking to U.S. lawmakers, Clinton said the Pakistani government had to provide basic services to its people or risk seeing the Taliban, and other extremists, fill the vacuum. Under pressure from conservatives, Zardari earlier this month signed a regulation imposing Islamic law in Swat, a northwestern valley once one of Pakistan's most popular tourist destinations. Asked about the matter, Clinton bluntly replied: "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists." Speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Clinton said, ominously, that the situation in Pakistan "poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world." Swat was a major tourist spot until 2007, when militants infiltrated the valley from strongholds on the Afghan border to the west in support of a radical cleric. U.S. DEPLOYING 21,000 MORE TROOPS After inconclusive military offensives and a failed peace agreement, Pakistani authorities accepted an Islamist demand for sharia, or Islamic law, in February. Teresita Schaffer, a former U.S. diplomat who served in Pakistan and now heads the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said many analysts share Clinton's assessment. "There is deep concern in the U.S. government, and elsewhere in this country, about the implications of the deal in Swat," Schaffer said. "It represents a cession of state authority to people who have been slitting the throats of policemen in the public square." Schaffer said she did not believe Clinton viewed the Pakistani state itself as a mortal threat. Rather, she said Clinton may have been suggesting that events in the country, where militants are believed to have plotted foreign attacks and set off a series of domestic suicide bombings in the last month, threaten other nations.

The White House says the May 6-7 talks between Obama, Karzai and Zardari will include a three-way meeting. The talks represent the U.S. president's effort to ease tensions and forge more cooperation between the two countries. Kabul has accused Islamabad of not doing enough to stop militants crossing the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan. However, ties have improved under Zardari, whose country is facing its own Islamist insurgency. Obama has authorized the deployment of 21,000 additional U.S. troops and hundreds of new diplomatic and other civilian officials to Afghanistan to try to quell the Taliban insurgency in the south and the east of that country. A senior U.S. commander said U.S. and NATO forces were close to achieving "irreversible momentum" in their battle with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, saying this was partly due to an influx of some 4,000 U.S. troops to the area this year.

Iran Faces Choice On Co-Operation: Clinton

Iran Faces Choice On Co-Operation: Clinton

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - February 2, 2009: President Barack Obama’s intent to change the direction of US foreign policy gives Iran a “clear opportunity” to engage more productively on its nuclear program and other issues, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. In her first remarks to reporters at the State Department, Clinton said Obama’s first days in office have made it clear that a more open Iranian approach to the international community could benefit Iran. She said this was reflected in statements Obama made in an interview Monday with an Arab TV network.

“There is a clear opportunity for the Iranians, as the president expressed in his interview, to demonstrate some willingness to engage meaningfully with the international community,” she said. “Whether or not that hand becomes less clenched is really up to them.”Obama told the Al-Arabiya news channel that he wanted to communicate to Muslims that “the Americans are not your enemy.” He condemned Iran’s threats to destroy Israel and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, but said “it is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress.”

Clinton, who criticized Obama for his willingness to speak directly with leaders of rogue nations like Iran during their contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters that the administration is undertaking a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of US policy options toward Iran. “There is just a lot that we are considering that I’m not prepared to discuss,” she added. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari, speaking in Athens, Greece, said Tuesday that it was too early to say whether relations with the United States would improve with Obama as president.“We will wait and see (if there is) actual change or just slogans,” he said.

Clinton’s comments came one day after US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Obama administration will engage in “direct diplomacy” with Iran. Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are US officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. Rice said Iran must meet UN Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

More broadly, Clinton said her initial round of telephone calls with world leaders has yielded positive signs.

“There’s a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that’s being set and the team that’s (been) put together by the president,” said the former New York senator and first lady.

“In areas of the world that have felt either overlooked or not receiving appropriate attention to the problems they are experiencing, there’s a welcoming of the engagement that we are promising,” she said. “It’s not any kind of repudiation or indictment of the past eight years so much as an excitement and an acceptance of how we are going to be doing business.”

She dismissed suggestions that Obama’s foreign policy team will find it difficult to work together. She said all are determined to find the best way to execute the president’s foreign policy objectives. “We have a lot of damage to repair,” she said, referring to US foreign relations as they stood when President George W. Bush left office Jan 20.Clinton said she spoke by telephone Tuesday with top Iraqi officials to make clear that there will be continuity in US policy. She said her call was intended to “reinforce our commitment to a democratic and sovereign Iraq and the importance of their provincial elections.” Iraqis are scheduled to vote on Saturday in a set of elections that US and Iraqi officials hope will further solidify progress toward national political reconciliation.

Al-Qaeda

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday the United States will “go after Al-Qaeda wherever Al-Qaeda is,” and said Washington’s position has been relayed to Pakistan.

“Both President (George W.) Bush and President (Barack) Obama have made clear we will go after Al-Qaeda whereever Al-Qaeda is, and we will continue to pursue that,” he told lawmakers.

Asked whether that decision has been transmitted to the government of Pakistan, Gates said “Yes, sir.”

As the Pentagon prepares for a major buildup of US troops in Afghanistan, Robert Gates warned Tuesday that the United States cannot become bogged down in the unrealistic goal of turning the devastated country into an economically prosperous nation.

Instead, the US must limit its focus to ensuring terrorists do not regain control of the region and use it to coordinate attacks, Gates said.

“If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of Central Asian Valhalla over there,” Gates said, referring to the mythic haven of purity, “we will lose because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience or money to be honest.”

Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee as President Barack Obama considers his options for drawing down US operations in Iraq and doubling the force size in Afghanistan. Obama planned to meet Wednesday with the service chiefs.

Gates told lawmakers that the Pentagon could send two more brigades to Afghanistan by late spring and a third by midsummer in an effort to try to salvage a country besieged by corruption and increasing violence.

More troops could be sent after that but that would hinge on the Defense Department’s ability to build a larger infrastructure, he added. The secretary cautioned against sending too many troops, because he said it could send the wrong message and Afghan citizens must see their own security forces take control.

When asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican and frequent visitor to the region, whether he expects casualties to rise with the uptick in military operations, Gates responded that it was “likely.”

“This is going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult and in many ways more difficult than Iraq. Do you agree with that?” Graham asked Gates.

“Yes,” Gates responded.Gates said the Pentagon is preparing for Obama various scenarios for winding down the war in Iraq, including a plan that would cease US involvement in combat within 16 months. Gates said military planners are looking at later dates as well and are prepared to brief Obama on all his options and the their associated risks. “I believe the president will have had every opportunity to hear quite directly from his commanders about what they can accomplish and what the attendant risks are under different options,” Gates said.Gates said he does not expect the military buildup in Afghanistan to put an additional strain on troops. By the end of September, soldiers deployed for 12 months should be allowed 15 months at home. In the 2010 budget year, that ratio will stretch further, giving troops two years at home for every one year deployed. By 2011, they should see 30 months at home, he said.

Weapons

Robert Gates vowed to reform the way the Pentagon buys weapons and said budget pressures resulting from two wars and the economic crisis would force tough choices in coming years.

“We will not be able to ‘do everything, buy everything’ ... I believe now is the time to take action,” Gates said in testimony prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Gates singled out procurement as one of the biggest challenges facing the Pentagon, and said finding a solution would require the support of industry and Congress.

“I believe that the FY 2010 budget must make hard choices. Any necessary changes should avoid across-the-board adjustments, which inefficiently extend all programs,” he said.

He said long-standing systemic problems had resulted in “the situation we face today, where a small set of expensive weapons programs has had repeated — and unacceptable — problems with requirements, schedule, cost and performance.”

Gates said the department had already begun to purchase weapons at more efficient rates, and he would work to buy larger quantities of systems that represent the ‘75 percent solution’ instead of waiting for a nearly perfect system.

The Pentagon also needed to ensure that services did not continue to add requirements once a weapons program began, and write contracts that gave incentives for good work.

“The department should seek increased competition, use of prototypes and ensure technology maturity so that our programs are ready for the next phases of development,” Gates said.

Threat

Gates meanwhile, assured lawmakers that the United States is ready to handle any Chinese military threat, even as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for increased US engagement with Beijing. Gates, speaking at a Senate hearing, said that US forces “have the capability in place to be able to deal with any foreseeable Chinese threat for some time to come.”

Clinton, meanwhile, told reporters at the State Department that the Bush administration’s dialogue with China “turned into an economic dialogue,” referring to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Strategic Economic Dialogue, high-level discussions that have been held twice a year starting in late 2006.

“We need a comprehensive dialogue with China,” Clinton said. Economic engagement, she added, is “a very important aspect of our relationship with China, but it’s not the only aspect our relationship.”

The Obama administration is “going to be working together in the government across our agencies to design a more comprehensive approach that will be more in keeping with the important role that China is playing and will be playing,” Clinton said.