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Ambassador
Pickering Speaks on
India,
Iran
and Iraq
Ambassador Thomas Pickering, one
of
America
’s most distinguished and experienced diplomats, addressed
the Global Economic Forum on October 24 about India’s increasing importance as a global economic and political
power. That same
evening, he addressed a capacity audience at the WAC/UNF
Global Issues Forum regarding US policy options toward
Iran
and Iraq.
Speaking on
India,
Pickering
emphasized the important economic and political reforms
underway in that country, the emergence of India
as a nuclear power, and the evolving nature of US-India
relations. India
is continuing economic reforms begun in the early ‘90’s,
when current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was Minister of
Finance, and is moving toward a mixed economy with less
government control, more private-sector participation and a
greater market orientation.
With Indian universities graduating more than 100,000
engineers annually, substantial investment in R&D, and the
spread of IT technology centers to many parts of the country, India
is poised to maintain 8 to 9 percent annual economic growth
for the foreseeable future.
Politically, the Congress Party’s dominance is under threat
from the BJP (Hindu) and other narrower political parties.
Governance through the formation of coalitions is now
the hallmark of Indian politics, but these are difficult to
organize and manage, and the political scene is much more
vibrant. India
’s 1974 nuclear test put it at odds with the US
for many years, but policies of engagement begun in the
Clinton Administration have been continued by President Bush,
and could lead eventually to a more effective global regime
for addressing the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation.
Pickering
stressed the need for diplomatic rather than military
interventions in respect to both
Iran
and Iraq.
The
US
approach to Iran, he said, should include the formation of a global mechanism
that guarantees access to nuclear fuel but that restricts
nuclear enrichment and recovery to the major nuclear powers. At the same time, the
US
must negotiate with Iran
a resolution of our bi-lateral issues, must abandon the notion
of regime change and must offer to other nations in the region
protection against nuclear threat.
According to Pickering, a successful resolution of the Iraq
situation will require not only strengthening of Iraqi police
and military forces, but also a political formula that
promotes reconciliation and establishes a federal system that
assures an equitable sharing of resource revenues among the
various components of Iraqi society. Pickering
argued that the US
approach at this point should be toward greater
internationalization of the Iraqi issue. He suggested the establishment of a Contact Group,
initially comprising the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council and
Japan, and expanding as appropriate to include
Iraq
’s neighbors, who have strong interest in seeing a stable Iraq
on their borders.
-Tom
Brennan
Board of
Directors
The World
Affairs Council of Jacksonville
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