Headley, Afghanistan to figure prominently during Sujatha Singh’s US visit

This weekend Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh will be in the United States for talks with her American interlocutors in what will be her first full-fledged visit to Washington since she took over on 1st of August. Her visit comes at a time when the Indo-US bilateral relationship has seemingly reached a plateau, the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement’s implementation is moving at a glacial pace, India’s repeated demands for access to Richard Headley remain unheard, the scheduled American and NATO troops’ drawdown from Afghanistan is set to begin in three months, and China is continuing to up its ante with the latest provocation from Beijing in the form of Air Defence Identification Zone in East China Sea. [caption id=“attachment_1275333” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] Well, the list of important bilateral, regional and international issues that would be dominating Singh’s discussions with senior American officials and Senators is much longer. Her engagements in Washington would be intense and expansive. She leaves for the US on Sunday (8 December, the day the election results for five state assemblies being seen as the ‘semi-final’ to the ‘final’ to be held by May 2014 would be out. Singh’s talks with her American interlocutors are scheduled for 9, 10 and 11 December. Her main task is to attend the Foreign Office Consultations which she will hold with her counterpart Wendy Sherman, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs on the 10th of December. Her first full-fledged visit to the US will also be a familiarization visit, though she had accompanied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the US a couple of months ago. She will be meeting a wide array of officials from other government departments of the United States as well. Sujatha Singh will be meeting Rose Gottemoeller, Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins and senior officials from the Department of Energy, Department of Defence, and Department of Commerce. Besides, Singh will also be having now customary interactions with think tanks which constitute an important element of India’s engagements in the United States and will also meet with members of the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives and some senior Senators. Here is a pithy commentary on two most important issues that currently affect India the most in its engagements with the US. 1. Afghanistan The US and Afghanistan are at an advanced stage of negotiating a Bilateral Security Agreement. Though India is out of this exercise as it is essentially a bilateral issue between Washington and Kabul, India is a major stakeholder in Afghanistan having pumped in close to three billion dollars worth of aid for reconstruction of the war-ravaged land-locked nation. India would like to be kept abreast of the Americans’ roadmap for Afghanistan in political and security fields. India will be loath to any arrangement between the Americans and the Afghans which can be detrimental to Indian strategic interests. India, Afghanistan and the US were to hold their trilateral meeting in September this year but it did not take place – not because of any political differences but because of inability to find the dates which would suit all three sides. The Indians are sniffing diplomatic victory in the wake of the recent historic interim agreement between Iran and P5 +1 in Geneva. The Iran deal’s game-changer aspect would be tested in what kind of security agreement the US is going to have with Afghanistan. Helpfully for India, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will be in India next week. This will complete a 360 degree picture to the Indian strategic community. 2.Headley Case Top Indian government sources have told this writer that the Americans empathize with Indian concerns regarding access to Richard Headley, a pivotal figure in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Key American officials have assured their Indian counterparts that they will respond to Indian requests for access to Headley to the extent the American laws permit. The problem, the Americans have told us, pertains to the Miranda Rule. This rule balances the needs of law enforcement for convictions of guilty persons against the protection of suspects from the risks to their right against compelled self-incrimination–risks that inherently arise from custodial interrogation. In other words, the need for answers to questions in a situation posing a threat to the public safety outweighs the need for the prophylactic rule protecting the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination. This is quite dense indeed. The man on the street in India would neither understand nor appreciate such complicated legal arguments. All that India wants from the US is access to Headley for interrogating him and the fact is that the Americans have cocked a snook to the Indians. This is despite the fact that India and the US have Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) in place! Probably India will have to get to a position like the Chinese clout over the US before expecting deliverance from the Americans! Imagine a scenario wherein the Americans want access to their most sought after criminal who is in Indian custody and they want to question the criminal. Chances are that the Americans will get all the necessary permissions within days, if not hours! Sujatha Singh will inevitably make yet another pitch for access to Headley. It remains to be seen if any concrete deliverables emerge on this issue in near future.