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"I think it is important to have a dialogue
(with India) and deepen that dialogue," US
Permanent Representative to NATO Ivo H. Daalder
told a group of Indian journalists on a tour of
the 28-nation military alliance's headquarters
here.
"It is through dialogue, through understanding
each other's perceptions and perhaps by working
on misperceptions that may exist that we can strengthen
the relations between India and NATO.
NATO was originally formed as a military alliance
to counter Russia and the east European Warsaw
Pact countries. It has undergone a sea-change
after the end of the Cold War beginning with the
demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The alliance,
which now includes many of the erstwhile Warsaw
Pact countries, has an established dialogue with
India, with its secretary general holding talks
with Indian leaders in recent years and its deputy
secretary general visiting New Delhi in 2010.
Daalder left it to India's political leadership
to give a direction to the dialogue and relationship.
"Ultimately, the decision of what India's
role with respect to NATO is going to be is India's
decision...So the relationship that India wants
with NATO is for India to decide," he said
when asked about what he thought about the ties.
"Where this relationship will go will largely
depend on where India would like it to go,"
he added.
The importance of the relationship, according
to him, was that the concepts of national and
international security of both India and the alliance
were in consonance with each other.
"What I think is it is important for India
and the countries of NATO -- and indeed of this
alliance as an organisation -- to have a dialogue
at every level...societal, opinion forming at
official level.
"The dialogue should be on how India's concept
of its own security and of international security
fits in with NATO's concept of international security
and how NATO as an actor and India as a country
can work together to promote security," he
said.
Daalder cited the example of troubled Afghanistan,
where India had committed $2 billion for development
works and NATO is spearheading an international
security forces operation, and the anti-piracy
measures in the Indian Ocean, where the Indian
Navy has an active role and NATO has a task force.
"We already do so (cooperate) in places
like Afghanistan, where NATO has a presence and
India has a presence. We can think about other
places we may be doing that.
"We do it in the Indian Ocean, when we are
dealing both with the scourge of piracy and we
cooperate actively. There your ships are part
of the effort to deal with pirates and NATO has
an operation there," he said.
Noting that NATO's relationship with other nations
was not limited to the group's geographical area,
Daalder said the alliance had relations with Australia,
which is far away from Europe and the Americas.
"The NATO has relations with countries further
away from where we are, like Australia. That relationship
has evolved over time. That relationship was quite
stand-offish until quite recently.
"Today, Australia is the 10th largest contributor
to our operations in Afghanistan and a very active
participant in the day-to-day operations,"
he said, indicating that future ties with India
for the alliance had a lot of potential.
(IANS)
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