Powell to visit India soon

mumbai: united states secretary for state colin powell and several other high-level us officials will soon visit india as per president george w bush''s directive to strengthen indo-us ties, us ambassador to india robert blackwill announced here on thursday. speaking at a luncheon function organised by the indo american chambers of commerce and indo american society, the ambassador announced a list of american policymakers slated to visit india in the coming months.apart from powell, us secretary of the treasury paul o''neill, secretary for defence donald rumsfeld, national security adviser condoleezza rice and deputy secretary of defence paul wolfowitz were also likely to visit india, he said. among those coming to india next week are us deputy secretary of the treasury kenneth dam and supreme court justices sandra day o''connor and stephen breyer, blackwill added. "we are just started. a half-dozen undersecretaries from various agencies in the bush administration and senior military officers would join this stream of high level official visitor from washington in the next several months," blackwill said. he said the president''s big idea was that by working together "more intensely" than ever, the us and india could transform fundamentally the very essence of their bilateral relationship. "i want to stress that in pursuing this accelerating us-india dialogue, america will not be a nagging nanny," blackwill said. he said the bush administration did not intend to lecture india on its national interests. "this was because my government does not presume to know india''s national interests better than the democratically elected representatives of this country. india''s choices must remain india''s choices," he said.