SPECIAL/BROOKINGS-FICCI ON US-INDIA
Ambassador Rao defends
India’s stand on Libya, Syria
AZIZ HANIFFA
India’s new Ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao last week defended Delhi’s stand on Libya and Syria, which
stands in stark contrast to that of the US and
its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies
and has caused discomfiture in Washington’s
administration, congressional, and think-tank
circles.
Following her keynote address to the third
Brookings Institution-Federation
of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry
‘Strategic dialogue on US-India
relations’, Rao responded to concerns in US circles over India’s
abstention on the Libya No-Fly
Zone vote in the United Nations
Security Council and subsequent
refusal to condemn the brutality
of the Syrian regime against its
own people.
‘Let me say,’ Rao said at the out-
set, ‘that we deeply value the con-
sultations that we had with the
United States on issues relating
to the Arab Spring and the
upheavals that we have seen in
the Middle East and North
Africa. It is true, of course, there
has been a divergence of posi-
tions between our two countries on the manner
of how to address the change that we see and
the degree of influence that we can bring to
bear on setting a certain direction or trend for
such change. In India and the region that we
come from, our views are very much impacted
by the fact that we have large communities of Indians who
live in this region — who work in this region — and they are
Indians of all economic levels. They are not necessarily
white-collar professionals. They are people who work in oil
rigs or who work in factories or who work in the construc-
tion industry and the livelihood issue of these people is very
important in terms of the working of their families in
India.’
Thus, she explained, this ‘consideration has always been
close to our hearts and uppermost …when we look at these
issues apart from the energy security aspect and our huge
dependence on energy sourcing from this region.’
Referring to India’s no-vote on the Libya No Fly Zone
resolution, she said, ‘When the Security Council discussed
and resolved to adopt certain mode of action on this issue,
our primary consideration or our concern that we sought to
articulate was that there has been insufficient information
at that time about the nature of what was happening —
about the rebellion itself and the influence and the strength
of the rebel forces.’
Rao also said Delhi at the time also had to attend to the
evacuation of about 20,000 Indians, not just out of Tripoli
but from all across Libya, ‘because they were scattered all
over the country. It was a huge operation.’
Rationalizing Delhi’s reluctance to endorse the US and
NATO action, she noted what Indian Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh had said in his UN General Assembly
Address September 24 — that in terms of the unrest in the
Middle East and North Africa, ‘solutions are best endan-
gered from within and they have to come out from within
SUHAIB SALEM/REUTERS
An anti-Muammar Gaddafi fighter’s funeral in Bani Walid, Tripoli, Libya, September 29. Inset: Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao
these countries, and for us to seek, to prescribe or to impose
solutions from outside, however well meaning those
efforts, may not succeed in realizing the best possible
results.’
Rao said, ‘That has been our worry and that has been our
concern about Syria also.’
She quickly added: ‘We are against violence, we are
against violence against civilians by the governments and
the organizations of the state, but we have to also see and
do our best to ensure a Libya-like situation doesn’t emerge
there. Even if you look at the other countries where there
has been unrest and things have quietened, we haven’t seen
a culmination of the realization of a situation where we can
say, once and for all, that the best has been realized and the
change, once it has settled down, has resulted in an order
that spells the best for the future of these countries.’
However, Rao asserted, ‘We would very much like to see
that and we are for democracies, we are for human rights,
but we are also for the rule of law and we would like stabil-
ity to the maximum extent possible.’
Earlier, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, in his
keynote address, had said, ‘Across the board, we hope India
recognizes that with increased power comes increased
responsibility… Recent weeks have seen encouraging signs
from Burma, including a new embrace of the language of
reform. Then (Indian) foreign secretary Rao’s meeting
with Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year was an important
step, and we hope that the Indian government will use its
close ties in Burma to encourage concrete action on politi-
cal and economic reform and national reconciliation. We
also hope we can look together at the profound changes
sweeping across the Middle East, and see our common
stake in successful transitions in a part of the world that
matters enormously to both of us.
