Washington, July 09, 2005 (Manorama Online)

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be visiting the US at a time of unprecedented cooperation between the two countries, a Washington-based think tank has said.

Despite US domestic concern about outsourcing jobs to India, bilateral economic ties continue to grow at a moderate pace, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies writes in its "South Asia Monitor". Singh will pay a state visit to the US from July 18.

But there are also sticky issues that will involve difficult negotiations. These include increasing ties with regimes... like Iran to secure energy resources, transfer of civilian technology to India and sale of sensitive US defence technologies, it says. These negotiations will "inevitably be made one proposal at a time, and will require flexibility on both sides".

Despite the setback of India's 1998 nuclear tests, says CSIS, Indian and American interests have slowly come around from nonalignment to convergence. The US has lifted practically all bans on exports for India's civilian space programme. The US has allowed Boeing to begin joint development of a communications satellite with India.

Economic ties have laid a major role in bringing the two countries together. Military ties are growing, says CSIS, but suspicions linger on both sides. The reliability of supplies is a major concern of Indians. The Bush Administration's offer of co-production of sophisticated combat jets is clearly intended as a significant signal - politically, commercially and strategically.