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September 19, 2007 09:51 IST
The Bush administration believes that Congressional fears about alleged military ties between India and Iran and reports of New Delhi's training of the Iranian navy are "exaggerated," but says it is up to India to explain its relations with Tehran to alleviate these concerns of US lawmakers, including some most supportive of the US-India strategic partnership. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher speaking at a Capitol Hill briefing said, the Indian government is well are of Congressional concern over its ties with Iran, but said what the administration was "trying to do is to make sure that everybody understands the facts of the matter.""Some of the fears are exaggerated," and added, "some of the training turns out to be sort of cadet level. Some exchanges don't lead to a lot. I think we just need to have a realistic sense of what this is," Boucher added. "It's more on the Indian side to try to explain exaclty what is and is not going on in terms of this relationship with Iran. As we are up-front with our relationships with others countries -- with India -- I am sure India can explain it better than we can -- what their relationship is and is not with Iran," he said."But I do think that everybody is aware of the level of Congressional concern about military relationships with Iran," he said, and argued, "Indeed, I don't think India is interested in seeing for example, an emergence of another nuclear power in Iran. So they made clear that they do have some policies in that regard that are clearly stated and maintained."
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