Blackwill sees greater potential for Indo-US ties

NEW YORK, MARCH 22 (AGENCIES)Relations between India and the United States are good, but they should be even better, Former US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill has said.

''Condoleezza Rice's visit to New Delhi last week boosted the Indo-US relationship and demonstrated that she and her new colleagues at the top of the State Department view India as a rising power,'' the ex-envoy said in an opinion article in Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Mr Blackwill, Ambassador to India between 2001 and 2003, is currently President of Barbour Griffith & Rogers International, a Republican Party lobbying firm. Until recently, he was America's Deputy National Security Adviser for strategic planning.

He said, ''No bilateral relationship changed as positively as that between India and the US during George W Bush's first term.

This is important because of congruent vital national interests of the two countries''.
The write-up in the New York-based newspaper was titled ''A New Deal for New Delhi'' with an Uncle Sam caricature. But instead of the hat, Uncle Sam wore a turban.