US embassy cable - 05NEWDELHI3017

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 003017 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2030 
TAGS: MARR, MOPS, PREL, PTER, IN, External Political Relations 
SUBJECT: COMMANDER USPACOM MEETS DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY 
ADVISOR 
 
Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES ROBERT O. BLAKE. 
 
Summary:  (C) India's Deputy National Security Advisor 
Ambassador Vijay Nambiar explains the focus of Wen Jiabao's 
visit to India.  Nambiar considers the present a time of 
great opportunities in US-India relations. India is studying 
the US offer of military equipment and technology transfer. 
India hopes a pattern of high level regular exchanges between 
China and India become the norm. India and China have 
exchanged maps on Line of Actual Control(LAC), however, no 
common agreement has been reached on the LAC. India sets goal 
of 30 billion USD in trade with China by 2010.  End Summary. 
 
1.  (C)  On 13 April 2005, Commander USPACOM met with Deputy 
National Security Advisor Ambassador Vijay Nambiar at the 
NSA's conferencing facility at the Cabinet Secretariat 
Building. Nambiar was joined by 10 members of the National 
Security Counsel. Also attending the meeting were PACOM 
staff, USDATT, and DCM Blake. 
 
2.  (C) An affable Nambiar welcomed USPACOM Commander and his 
staff and reminisced about his time as India's Ambassador to 
China and his close personal relationship with then US 
Ambassador/Former USCINCPAC Admiral Joseph Prueher. Nambiar 
apologized on behalf of National Security Advisor Narayanan 
for Narayanan not being available to meet the Commander, 
explaining that Narayanan was completely tied up with the 
visit of China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.  Nambiar opened 
by offering his views on the healthy state of Indo-US 
relations, reminding that India's Foreign Minister Natwar 
Singh was in the US, that Transportation Secretary Minetta 
was in India for the Open Skies Agreement, that Prime 
Minister Manmohan Singh would visit the US in July, and that 
POTUS would hopefully visit India by the end of the year. 
According to Nambiar, this is a time of great opportunities 
in our relations.  Indo-US cooperation during tsunami relief 
operations was a very valuable experience. India is now 
studying the US offer of military equipment and technology 
transfer, said Nambiar.  India is focused on developments in 
East Asia, especially relations between China and Japan, he 
said. Nambiar stated that India has been engaging in maritime 
cooperation with Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and 
asked Commander USPACOM how these nations view bilateral 
military relations between India and the US. 
 
3.  (C)  Commander USPACOM recounted that he and Admiral 
Prueher go back many years and that, unfortunately, the 
paucity of time necessitates that perhaps a longer discussion 
between PACOM and India's NSC should be arranged. Commander 
USPACOM briefly described PACOM's area of responsibilities, 
talked briefly about the Japan-US relationship, and the US 
approach to world wide terrorism. Maritime cooperation in 
this region holds great opportunity, with many mutual 
benefits, explained Commander USPACOM. 
 
4. (C)  Nambiar underscored that the month of April continues 
to be a very hectic period for India's foreign policy 
establishment with the visits of China's Premier, Pakistan's 
President, and Japan's Prime Minister.  On the visit of 
Premier Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took 
considerable responsibility for the inputs, as he himself 
identified the visit as of great importance, according to 
Nambiar. The last high level exchange, Nambiar explained, was 
when India's Prime Minister Vajpayee visited China June 2003. 
 Nambiar explained that India hoped this would set a pattern 
of regular exchanges of leaders between both nations. 
 
5.  (C)  Nambiar explained that Wen Jiabao's current visit to 
India is set against the backdrop of a desire to improve 
economic and trade relations. Back in 1998 India and China 
decided not to let the long standing contentious issues get 
in the way of improving relations in other areas such as 
trade and commerce. As such, these issues were agreed to be 
set aside and not create an impasse. According to Nambiar, 
China's security concerns are directed eastwards where China 
has major anxieties.  China also is concerned with separatist 
issues in XingJang province and political problems in Tibet. 
Regarding Sino-Indian relations, Nambiar explained that the 
peace and tranquility agreement remains in effect, despite 
not having solved the boundary issues.  Two major agreements 
were signed in 1993 and 1996 and now India and China are 
trying to implement these agreements.  However, at present 
there is no common agreement on the Line of Actual Control 
(LAC). India and China are in the process of exchanging maps 
on the contentious middle-sector. On the other two sectors in 
the West and East, there are still differences in 
perspectives on identifying the LAC. The Chinese still go 
back to 6th Nov 1959 as their perspective, which ties up 
negotiations.  Nambiar explained that India hoped to move 
these negotiations onto the political level.  China and India 
have agreed to have meetings between political 
representatives in working groups to resolve these issues. 
India and China have entered a new strategic relationship, 
said Nambiar.  China has been laying emphasis on this 
element, namely "Strategic Relations."  However, India would 
like to go beyond mere words to create some substantive 
outputs.  India desires to focus on trade relations with a 
goal to double trade to about 20 billion USD in the next few 
years and to 30 billion by 2010, he said. 
 
Comments: 
1. Nambiar is gracious, intelligent, and was apologetic that 
his boss, Mr Narayanan was not available to meet Commander 
USPACOM. What was set up as a 30 minute courtesy call, turned 
into a potential two hour round table discussion with 
Nambiar, who assembled his entire NSC staff, and they were 
eager to engage Commander USPACOM on a variety of subjects. 
2. Nambiar, recently named as Deputy National Security 
Adviser, is a senior member of the Indian Foreign Service. 
Prior to his current assignment, he was Permanent 
Representative to the UN, and High Commissioner in Islamabad. 
He was recalled from Islamabad after the December 2001 
terrorist attack on Parliament, and was appointed as India,s 
Permanent Representative to the United Nations in April 2002. 
 Nambiar,s appointment as Deputy NSA was seen as a coup for 
the Indian Foreign Service, which was disappointed not to 
have a career diplomat named as NSA to succeed JN Dixit. 
 
BLAKE 
BLAKE