On what to look out for during Prime Minister Singh’s state visitbeyond the symbolism of the visit itself, Burns told CFR that therewould be two important aspects — First, the areas where bothcountries and their respective governments could and should be workingtogether.
“”For instance, we should have further cooperation on education, onspace, on science and technology, on agriculture. There’s our defenserelationship where India is foregoing its long-term dependence onRussian military technology. There’s now an opportunity for India toselect and decide to purchase the most sophisticated American militarytechnology that would cement our military ties. So there are a numberof opportunities here on the positive side of the relationship,” hesaid.

The second thing to watch out for was the looming differences in therelationship, and what steps these partner countries would take todeal with them.

For instance, he said there was the issue of climate change, where,despite some better dialogue in the last few months, the two countriesare very far apart on a global solution at Copenhagen and beyond.

Trade was another area where bilateral differences haven’t really sunk.

“If the world trade talks are going to be revived, can India and theUnited States cooperate more effectively? And [there's] thepossibility that we may not see eye-to-eye on Iran. Now, India hasbeen very careful. It’s not a supporter of the Iranian government, butif President Obama decides to go in the direction of economicsanctions against Iran, will India agree to join those sanctions? So,as is so often the case in diplomacy, success or failure will not be aquestion of just how well we do together on the issues where we agree,but it’s how well we can manage the issues where we disagree,” Burnssaid.

He also said that it would be a great strategic mistake for the UnitedStates to view India through the prism of Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Burns said: “One of the great conceptual breakthroughs that we saidpublicly, “we’re going to de-hyphenate America’s relations withIndia-Pakistan.”

He said Washington’s relationship with India and with Pakistan isfundamentally different.

“While Pakistan is an enormously important country to the UnitedStates, we shouldn’t subordinate the U.S.-India relationship to it,and I do see over the last six or seven months, many Americans insideour government and outside our government being very critical ofIndia,” he said.

“It is in the American interest to separate these two countries.Obviously we need to have a strong partnership with Pakistan onmilitary and economic engagement. But our relationship with India willbe very different. It will be focused on the broader problems of theregion, so India is a very valued partner,” Burns said.

He also said that the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement is a majorstep forward for both countries, and is clearly in the interests ofboth countries.

“I hope the Indian government will be patient and understand that I’msure the Obama administration will meet all the commitments that havebeen made by the U.S. government in years past. Having said that, it’sgoing to be important to work on these technical details,” Burns said,adding that the highest hurdles have been surmounted.

He also said that he admired Prime Minister Singh and his commitmentto peace, his restraint in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

The United States, he said, needs to be very clear about openly andpublicly supporting a much greater Pakistani cooperation with theIndian government on the Mumbai issue.

“There’s no question the attackers came from Pakistan. They wereinspired by Pakistani terror groups , and therefore, the Pakistanigovernment has an obligation to crack down on those groups, not toallow the people who perhaps were the masterminds of this attack to bewalking around free and able to produce further future terroristattacks,” he said.

He did not see the United States openly mediating between India andPakistan on critical issues like Kashmir, but added that Washington isuniquely positioned in South Asia.

“We can be a quiet advocate for the two countries to find a wayforward to avoid the worst-case situation, which would be a nuclearwar between the two, to avoid confrontation, to avoid conflict, and towork out a process where Indians and Pakistanis can come together,”Burns said. (ANI)