Sharon in India to drum up trade plans, bolster military ties

NEW DELHI, India -- Ariel Sharon began a landmark visit to India on Monday, intent on cementing defense deals and fortifying his country's friendship with a longtime Palestinian ally during the first visit here by an Israeli prime minister.

Pakistan, India's neighbor and chief rival, immediately warned of the "dangerous consequences" of a military alliance between Israel and India, knowing Sharon hopes to seal the $1 billion sale of an advanced airborne radar package.

"I think such a collaboration should be avoided at all costs," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters Monday, adding it would hurt peace in the region.

The United States is applauding the three-day state visit, the first by an Israeli leader since India opened ties with the Jewish state in 1992, and may be looking toward a three-way strategic alliance in the region.

In the long term, however, Washington might oppose Israeli efforts to provide India with technology -- some developed jointly with the United States -- that could tilt the military balance in the region and upset U.S. allies, such as Pakistan, in the global war on terrorism.

India has the world's second-largest Muslim population and New Delhi does not want the Sharon visit to re-ignite riots between Hindus and Muslims, violence which has claimed thousands of lives in the last two years.

Protests expected

Sharon's entourage of three Cabinet ministers and more than 30 business and defense leaders can expect street protests by leftist and Muslim groups who note Indian leaders have always supported the Palestinian struggle for self-rule, long before India and Israel gained independence from Britain more than half a century ago.

The country's major Muslim organizations have called for street protests, accusing the Israeli leader of being a "war criminal." In a statement Monday, the Muslim leaders said the visit was an "official seal on the reversal of India's traditional support for the Palestinian people."

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said he was confident Sharon's visit would boost ties with Israel without diluting India's Palestinian support.

of the Palestinian cause.

"Our relations will be further strengthened," Vajpayee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India. He said India, under its secular constitution, had always taken a "principled stand" on the Palestinian plight for a homeland.

Sharon's visit comes just as the U.S.-backed "road map" for establishing a Palestinian state by 2005 has been dealt a blow with the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's military campaign to target the militant group Hamas after a Hamas suicide bomber killed 22 people on a Jerusalem bus on Aug. 19.

In India, many see the burgeoning relations with Israel as advantageous to their rapidly developing nation.

The countries have developed thriving commercial and military ties. Israeli experts say India already has bought Israeli missiles, radar, communications equipment and guns.

Bilateral trade grew to $1.27 billion last year, mostly in diamonds, agricultural machinery and chemical products, according to the Indian government.

Indian and U.S. defense officials met last month in Washington, where they declared a "new strategic partnership." Israel has its own deep friendship with the Americans, prompting analysts to talk of a possible three-way alliance in which India's proximity to the Persian Gulf region could serve Israeli and U.S. efforts to pre-empt any hostile action by countries such as Iran.

"India could be an important security partner for both the United States and Israel," former Pentagon official Richard Speier wrote in a Sept. 3 analysis for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Like them, India is threatened by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missiles that deliver them and radical Islamist terrorists."

After initial doubts, Washington recently gave its blessing for India's purchase of four Israeli-made PHALCON airborne early warning systems, at an estimated $1 billion. That does not sit well with India's nuclear neighbors, Pakistan and China.

"Are they going to unleash these weapons against their immediate neighborhood?" Khan said in Islamabad.

The Israeli and Indian leaders were expected to discuss the possible sale to India of the Arrow missile defense system, developed by Israel and the United States; Iran's reported attempts to acquire nuclear weapons; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and the role of radical Islamic groups operating in Pakistan and Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan province divided between the South Asian rivals.

They will also discuss methods to combat terrorism, as the two countries have a Joint Working Group on counterterrorism and share similar woes over Islamic militancy.

India has been battling an Islamic insurgency in its portion of Kashmir since 1989. More than 63,000 people have been killed in the struggle for an independent Kashmir or one merged with Islamic Pakistan.

"It is astonishing how India can accommodate both the Israeli leader and its pledge of supporting the Palestinian cause," said Mohammad Tariq, a 22-year-old college student in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. "It must be the finest example of diplomatic bigotry."