DATE=3/23/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=CLINTON IN INDIA
NUMBER=6-11742
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
INTRO: President Clinton is visiting South Asia this
week, spending four days in India. He is the first U-
S president to visit the sub-continent in 22 years,
and many commentators here are noting the trip is long
overdue.
Generally the president is getting good reviews for
the trip so far, and we get a sampling now from
___________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: The president has been appealing for calm in
the region, telling the Indian parliament and top
government officials that the dispute with Pakistan
over Kashmir threatens the whole world - and not just
South Asia - with nuclear war.
Indian President K. R. Naraynan was unusually frank in
his response to Mr. Clinton's claim that the region
was the most dangerous in the world. But the New York
Times says it is actually helpful that the Mr. Clinton
has been as frank as he has been in addressing the
situation on the Indian subcontinent.
A lead editorial praises President Clinton for his
"blunt talk" in the world's most populous democracy
(India).
VOICE: President Clinton has paid his hosts in
India the ultimate compliment this week. He has
spoken to them candidly. Precisely because of
the uneasy state of Indian-American relations,
there was little to be gained from platitudes.
In private meetings, public statements and a
speech to Parliament yesterday, the president
instead cut to the main point: emphasizing the
vital importance of India's and Pakistan's
turning back from their nuclear arms race and
trying to resolve their differences peacefully.
Indian leaders politely disagreed with much of
what Mr. Clinton said. That was to be expected.
But the exchange was healthy, and it could open
the way toward progress in the future. /// OPT
/// If Mr. Clinton can coax India and Pakistan
to consider reciprocal steps to ease tensions -
a reduction in Indian forces in Kashmir in
return for a cutoff of Pakistani aid to the
rebels - the visit this week will have been
valuable indeed. /// END OPT ///
TEXT: The Wall Street Journal also generally approves
of Mr. Clinton's performance on the visit, with one
major reservation.
VOICE: There is much expertise the U-S might
offer the subcontinent, if only the Clinton
administration would stop harping on the
comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which of course
his own Senate has rejected, rightly, as
unworkable. Mr. Clinton is right to encourage
India and Pakistan to return to a process of
opening up links begun when India's prime
minister traveled to Lahore by bus last spring.
But it can't be forgotten that there are
substantial forces on both sides of the divide
who will work to sabotage any such progress, as
they did last year. The main prerequisite ...
for peace today is a stable democracy, and
that's where Mr. Clinton's energies would be
best concentrated.
TEXT: For the view from Texas, we turn to this
editorial in The Dallas Morning News:
VOICE: He cannot afford to join India's leaders
in the pretense that the rest of the world has
no interests to defend in Kashmir. Not when
Kashmir is the world's most dangerous nuclear
flash point. Not when Kashmir causes Pakistan
to ally with Islamic fundamentalists, who
promise to help recover the province but who
also threaten Pakistan's stability and U-S
security. Not when Indian soldiers and police
consistently violate human rights in Kashmir.
The massacre Tuesday of dozens of Kashmiris by
Islamic separatists underscored the conflict's
international character, since it evidently was
timed to coincide with Mr. Clinton's visit. ...
Mr. Clinton can't force India and Pakistan to
abjure their recklessness over Kashmir. But he
is right to try every lever in the effort.
TEXT: The Sun in Baltimore is also cheered by the
president's visit to what it feels is a far too
neglected region in American diplomacy.
VOICE: President Clinton's five days in India
should cement a new relationship with the
world's second-most populous country and largest
democracy. It was time for official Washington
to see India in a new light. ... India, like
China, looms as a great power of the 21st
century. /// OPT /// It is leaping stages of
industrial development. Its not-so-secret
strength in the information age is its brain
power. Its newest booming exports are software
services and professionals working in the United
States and Europe. India remains a massively
poor country plagued by high mortality and
crushing poverty. This hides the growth of an
immense professional middle class. And while
developing expensive nuclear weaponry and
maintaining cold wars with China and Pakistan,
India has remained the Third World's most
notable democracy. ... Mr. Clinton's stay ...
is the first presidential visit to India in 22
years and long overdue. /// END OPT ///
TEXT: That concludes this sampling of editorial
comment on President Clinton's current trip to India
and neighboring nations in South Asia.
NEB/ANG/JO
23-Mar-2000 16:01 PM EDT (23-Mar-2000 2101 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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