Congressman Steny Hoyer, the majority leader of the US House of Representatives, dismissed allegations that US was hypocritical in its foreign policies, and said it was, in fact, India's friend and ally.
During the congressional reception on Capitol Hill hosted by the National Federation of Indian American Associations, community activist from New Jersey Dave Makker had said that even as the US declared its strategic partnership with India, it had continued to provide Pakistan with massive military largesse, which Islamabad turns around and uses against India, in addition to perpetrating cross-border terrorism against New Delhi.
Makkar also alleged that the arms and sophisticated technology Washington transferred to Israel, was in turn being supplied by Tel Aviv to China, another enemy of India, which also continues to arm Pakistan and condones its terrorist activities against New Delhi.
Hoyer said, "I do not claim that America has simplistic answers to all the questions you raised. Clearly we are confronted with terrorism."
He acknowledged that western Pakistan was one of the issues of terrorism, "which is giving sanctuary to terrorists".
"Clearly, it is in the best interests of America and all other people to try to defeat that area of terrorism. And therefore it is a complicated question to pursue in terms of an alliance with people, who are from time to time not as focused as I would like them to be " he said.
On India-US relations, Hoyer said though India and US did not always have a "close relationship" in the past, today they shared many common interests.
"I am sure you recall why. When we were confronting Soviet communism, we did not feel that we got the strong support that we should have gotten from another democracy in our international community. That was of concern to us," Hoyer said.
Hoyer said, "That is now not the case; Soviet Union for one thing has disappeared. The second thing is to say that we don't always see eye to eye on some United Nations resolutions very frankly, which I think seem to confront terrorism as opposed to rationalise terrorism."
But he added, "Emphasising these differences are not either what today is about or what is productive as we move forward. We have common interests. Yes, we are friends. Yes, we are an alliance. Yes, we have a lot of Indian Americans. But we have at core, common interests in security, and I assure you my friend, that the Congress of the United States and others are trying to pursue those interests in as rational a way as possible, with the clear understanding that like India, we have to make decisions, which are not always black and white but at the core are designed to try to get us to a safer international community."
Hoyer said the US, "whether it is terrorism in Mumbai or terrorism any other place in the world", is an ally to defeat it.
"I will assure you that I personally have in fact made representations to Pakistanis along that line and I will continue to do so," he said.
He also said earlier that the two nations had many common interests including confronting terrorism and in peaceful handling of nuclear power.
"We continue to be concerned about the control of the nuclear weapons in Pakistan itself, which has seen terrorism at its very door and I know that you are very concerned about that and we share that concern," he added.
When he was buttonholed on another growing concern within the Indian-American community and US business circles that the Obama Administration was not as committed to the US-India civilian nuclear deal as its predecessor, Hoyer shot back.
"Right now, the ball is in India's courtas you know, in the parliament," he said.
"We have taken such action as was necessary and there were certain things that the Indian parliament had to do, which had not yet been accomplished. So from that standpoint, the ball is in India's court," he added.
When he was urged to advice and counsel President Obama to further strengthen US-India relations, with implications that the Obama administration was not as enthused about the partnership as former president George Bush was, Hoyer said, "I don't think he needs my advice and counsel on this issue because I believe he shares my view, and I share his view that a close, working alliance with India is in the best interests of both countries and warranted as American policy and he is pursuing that."
"In terms of Israel's arms to China, which you allege, clearly Israel's integrity and independence is of critical concern to the United States of America," Hoyer said.
"It is surrounded by enemies that have sworn to see its demise who have sworn --(Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad in particular -- but other Arab leaders as well to push it into the sea."
He added, "That is why the United States transfers arms and technology (to Israel), as we do, to many other countries who are trying to defend their own freedom. It is not simple There is no simple answer," he said.
