India won't jeopardise relations with US over Iraq

NEW DELHI: India has chosen to adopt the middle path over Iraq to ensure that the government’s carefully nurtured relationship with the US is not destroyed.
Alienation from the US could lead to a compromise of national interests if the US or Britain took anti-India positions on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations, government sources said on Saturday.
Asserting that India had paid heavily in the past for its principled positions on various issues, the sources said the government had chosen its current position in the national interest. Therefore, though it was opposed to the war, it was not adopting a strident posture that would serve no purpose.
The Vajpayee government also seems to looking at the Iraqi crisis through the prism of Indo-Pakistani relations. With Pakistan bending over backwards to accommodate the US, the sources said, it is necessary for India to balance this without compromising on its sovereignty and self-respect.
The US had made it very clear that this was crunch time and support on this issue would determine the future course of the bilateral relationship. However it understood India’s concerns and even the middle path adopted by India was a big deal for the US.
The government feels that a quick end to the war will ensure that there is no major economic fallout. The pitch would get queered only if the war gets prolonged, sources said. Even as they cited India’s anxieties over rubbing US the wrong way on Iraq, sources said there was no guarantee that the US would move forward on India’s interests, especially regarding terrorism. Sources said there was the danger of a violent backlash.
The sources added that India could not alienate the US over a single issue like Iraq. The government does not expect the US to target any other country after Iraq.
The sources contended that there was no need for India to take a strident position as few countries had acted upon their statements and most multilateral bodies such as NATO, OIC and the Arab League were divided.