India-US+Relations

India-US Relations -Common belief in freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, and seeks to advance shared security interests. These interests include maintaining security and stability, defeating terrorism and violent religious extremism, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and associated materials, data, and technologies and protecting the free flow of commerce via land, air and sea lanes.... SO... we're mostly buddies __ BUT. __ .. the Indian government sees the sole U.S. base in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia, and the permanent presence of the U.S. military there, as a potentiai escalation point in a future war, especially because of the current U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Signs of being buddies: « The United States is also one of India's largest direct investors. *  India has conducted joint military excercises with the U.S. in the Indian Ocean. *    During the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., President George W. Bush chose India as the country to control and police the Indian Ocean sea-lanes from the Suez to Singapore. *    The tsunami that occurred in December 2004 saw the U.S. and Indian navies to work together in search and rescue operations and to reconstruct the damaged lives and land. *    An Open Skies Agreement was made in April 2005. This helped enhance trade, tourism, and business by the increased number of flights. Air India purchased 68 US Boeing aircraft, which cost $8 billion. « -Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made recent visits to India as well. « -After Hurricane Katrina, India donated $5 million to the American Red Cross and sent 2 plane loads of relief supplies and materials to help. *    In 2006, President Bush made another diplomatic visit to expand relations between India and the United States. *  We have the **Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement** o a bilateral agreement on nuclear cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of India. o The framework for this agreement was a joint statement by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George W. Bush, under which India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place civil facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and. in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.