WASHINGTON, 4 May — When it comes to timing, India couldn’t be in a better place.  At least, that appears to be the current US perspective.    

Officials announced yesterday that, after a three-year moratorium, the US would resume military cooperation with India, which will be marked by a visit to New Delhi by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff later this month.

Cooperation between the two countries was cut off, and sanctions were imposed, after India’s nuclear tests in May 1998.  UPI reported yesterday that the Bush administration had told India it also would soon lift the economic sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests.

According to Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh, Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will visit India to work on “a closer relationship” between the two nations’ military forces.

In addition, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is also scheduled to visit India separately this month to confer on the Bush administration’s plan to build a missile defense system and possibly abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh told journalists yesterday that these decisions follow the visit to Washington by Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh in early April, which came at a time of heightened tension between the US and India’s rival, China.

Amb. Mansingh refused to say that growing cooperation with the US was aimed at intimidating China. 

And a US official, who confirmed the Bush administration’s intention to establish closer relations with India and start military cooperation, also refused to say whether the decision was related to Washington’s row with China.

The official added President George W. Bush had begun a review of foreign policy, and its polices toward South Asia are currently under assessment.

Some members of the Bush administration’s Pentagon staff served in Pakistan during the Cold War, when the country was considered a key ally — but its decline into martial law in 1999, turning a blind eye to terrorist groups that have attacked Indian-held Kashmir, its support for the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and chronic corruption and economic stagnation have made it a less attractive ally for this administration.

India, on the other hand, since the end of the Cold War, has embraced free-market reforms and chosen the US as its main trading partner. More important, India has retained its position as the world’s largest democracy.