Taking stock of India's new foreign policy (International Herald Tribune)

The writer analyses the new govt's foreign policy manifesto and feels that even though US-India relations will be different under the Congress-led govt, they will not be as contrarian as with previous Congress governments.

He feels that it is important to analyse a new govt's manifesto because it has clear indications on what the govt will do. He finds that the previous government's manifesto clearly mentioned nuclear weapons but the US govt will still caught by surprise when the weapons were tested in May 1998.

The author was an assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 1997 to 2001.