My dinner with Jaswant

The plod-plod of diplomacy gallops in Strobe Talbott's memoir of the most intense high-level Indo-US dialogue yet.

Engaging IndiaDiplomacy, Democracy and the BombStrobe TalbottPenguinPages:Price: Rs 395ISBN: 0670057711Hardback

In 1998 India pressed the plunger on a set of nuclear explosives. The United States retaliated with sanctions and finger-wagging. India believed that without the tests it wouldn’t have credible nuclear deterrent. The US feared Pokhran II would trigger a fissile free-for-all in the world.

But as the two countries raked each other with verbal broadsides, they also sought to use the crisis to get to know each other better. New Delhi sent the message: You need to take us more seriously. Washington responded: Global players need to be responsible as well as strong.

Two men were selected to carve out a common ground in the battlefield — US State Department number two Strobe Talbott and Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh. They met “14 times at 10 locations in seven countries on three continents.”

This is the story of that dialogue and the sharing of worldviews by the world’s largest democracies that took place. Because, as Talbott writes, a successful dialogue is not about briefing books, it’s about making an “effort to understand what the other has said and to incorporate that understanding into a reply.”

In tangible diplomacy, the Singh-Talbott dialogue was straightforward enough. India wanted sanctions removed and its nuclear power status accepted. The US wanted India to agree to five benchmarks, most of which were designed to make New Delhi clearly define its nuclear agenda — doctrine, numbers and confidence-building with Pakistan.

Talbott concedes Singh beat him hands down in the diplomatic marathon. India simply wore the US down. As the months ground on, the world lost interest in the sanctions. The US Congress turned on the comprehensive test ban treaty that had led India to hold the tests in the first place. And behind the scenes was Bill Clinton who, while wishing Talbott well in his talks with “that Jaswant guy,” was determined to go to India “and tell ‘em it’s a new world out there and we’ve got to work together.”