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TwitterWhile the 2011 Pak-US bilateral trade volume stands at hardly $3.58 billion, the size of current business between India and the world super power rests at a relatively mammoth $33.49 billion or 9.35 times bigger than the goods traffic travelling between the Pakistani and American ports, an analytical research conducted by The News International reveals.
In 2001, the bilateral India-US trade volume was resting at just $13.49 billion, which thus means that during the last 10 years, the business ties between New Delhi and Washington DC have grown by approximately 2.5 times. In 2008, the India-US trade volume was resting at nearly $44 billion. (Reference: Latest 2011 United States Census Bureau figures)
On the contrary, the Pak-US trade volume in 2001 was hovering around the $2.79 billion mark only. Between 2001 and 2011, the Pak-US trade volume has grown by just 1.28 times to stand at $3.58 billion—-or at half the speed at which India has managed to make its business increase with America.
It goes without saying that it should have been the other way round, because between 2001 and 2011, Pakistan has been America’s key ally in the War against Terror-having received aid in excess of $18 billion from Washington DC.
However, Pakistan has lost $67 billion (apart from 36,000 precious lives) during the last 10 years due to rampant terrorism and this amount is 10 per cent more than the country’s total external debt liabilities of $60.116 billion. (Reference: Latest 2011 State Bank of Pakistan figures)
Dispelling another myth, Pakistan owed only $1.507 billion to the US in 2010, while the figure of outstanding Chinese loans had stood at $1.762 billion during the same year. (Reference: State Bank of Pakistan’s latest statistics)
The American loan payable is hence just 2.5 per cent of the net $60.116 billion external debt liabilities of Pakistan. Similarly, Pakistan owed $7.011 billion to Japan last year, $2.011 billion to France and $1.66 billion to Germany, which thus shows that the United States was the fifth largest lender to Islamabad in 2010, as far as lending from individual countries is concerned.
The extent of how much the US prefers India to Pakistan can also be gauged from the fact that in December 2006, the American Congress passed the Henry Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Cooperation Act, which allowed direct civilian nuclear commerce with India for the first time in 30 years.
This legislation had in fact cleared the way for India to buy US nuclear reactors and fuel for its civilian use. In July 2007, the United States and India reached a historic milestone in their strategic partnership by completing parleys on the agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, also known as the “123 Agreement.”
This agreement was inked on October 10, 2008. In March 2009, the Obama administration had sanctioned and cleared the $2.1 billion sale of eight military aircraft to India.
Coupled with a $5 billion agreement to provide other vital military equipment (including Boeing planes), these incentives for New Delhi were announced during President Obama’s November 2010 visit to the world’s largest democracy.
Obama had become only the second US President, after Richard Nixon in 1969, to undertake a visit to India in his first term in office.
He was also the second-ever US President to address a joint session of the Parliament of India. President Obama, during the course of his visit, had also declared the American support for India’s permanent membership of United Nations Security Council.
These accords had made the US emerge as one of the top three military suppliers for India, along with the likes of Israel and Russia.
This is how the April 2011 report of the prestigious 1916 US think-tank “Brookings Institute” had described these Indo-US deals: “During the trip, Obama announced that the United States would sell $5 billion worth of US military equipment to India, including ten Boeing C-17 military transport aircraft and GE 404 engines. Although the details are still being worked out, these and other contracts already in the works will propel the United States into the ranks of India’s top three military suppliers, alongside Russia and Israel. With India planning to buy $100 billion worth of new weapons over the next ten years, arms sales may be the best way for the United States to revive stagnating US-Indian relations.”
In 2005, President George Bush had granted India an unprecedented nuclear deal, offering to assist India’s civilian nuclear programme in contravention of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.
According to the US Department of State’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, America also happens to be India’s largest investment partner.
The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs says in its most recent report: “The United States is India’s largest investment partner, with a 13 per cent share. India’s total inflow of US direct investment was estimated at more than $16 billion through 2008. India’s external debt was nearly $230 billion by the end of 2008, up from $126 billion in 2005-2006. Foreign assistance was approximately $3 billion in 2006-2007, with the United States providing about $126 million in development assistance.”
History shows that Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who is considered a key figure in the introduction of Hindu philosophies of Yoga to America and Europe, had actually laid the foundation stone of Indo-US relations in 1893 when he had captivated the audience at Chicago by introducing Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893. (References: Page 600 of Feuerstein George’s 2002 book “The Yoga Tradition, Motilal Banarsidass” and page 209 of Peter Bernard Clarke’s 2006 book “New Religions in Global Perspective”)
In 2001, the bilateral India-US trade volume was resting at just $13.49 billion, which thus means that during the last 10 years, the business ties between New Delhi and Washington DC have grown by approximately 2.5 times. In 2008, the India-US trade volume was resting at nearly $44 billion. (Reference: Latest 2011 United States Census Bureau figures)
On the contrary, the Pak-US trade volume in 2001 was hovering around the $2.79 billion mark only. Between 2001 and 2011, the Pak-US trade volume has grown by just 1.28 times to stand at $3.58 billion—-or at half the speed at which India has managed to make its business increase with America.
It goes without saying that it should have been the other way round, because between 2001 and 2011, Pakistan has been America’s key ally in the War against Terror-having received aid in excess of $18 billion from Washington DC.
However, Pakistan has lost $67 billion (apart from 36,000 precious lives) during the last 10 years due to rampant terrorism and this amount is 10 per cent more than the country’s total external debt liabilities of $60.116 billion. (Reference: Latest 2011 State Bank of Pakistan figures)
Dispelling another myth, Pakistan owed only $1.507 billion to the US in 2010, while the figure of outstanding Chinese loans had stood at $1.762 billion during the same year. (Reference: State Bank of Pakistan’s latest statistics)
The American loan payable is hence just 2.5 per cent of the net $60.116 billion external debt liabilities of Pakistan. Similarly, Pakistan owed $7.011 billion to Japan last year, $2.011 billion to France and $1.66 billion to Germany, which thus shows that the United States was the fifth largest lender to Islamabad in 2010, as far as lending from individual countries is concerned.
The extent of how much the US prefers India to Pakistan can also be gauged from the fact that in December 2006, the American Congress passed the Henry Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Cooperation Act, which allowed direct civilian nuclear commerce with India for the first time in 30 years.
This legislation had in fact cleared the way for India to buy US nuclear reactors and fuel for its civilian use. In July 2007, the United States and India reached a historic milestone in their strategic partnership by completing parleys on the agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, also known as the “123 Agreement.”
This agreement was inked on October 10, 2008. In March 2009, the Obama administration had sanctioned and cleared the $2.1 billion sale of eight military aircraft to India.
Coupled with a $5 billion agreement to provide other vital military equipment (including Boeing planes), these incentives for New Delhi were announced during President Obama’s November 2010 visit to the world’s largest democracy.
Obama had become only the second US President, after Richard Nixon in 1969, to undertake a visit to India in his first term in office.
He was also the second-ever US President to address a joint session of the Parliament of India. President Obama, during the course of his visit, had also declared the American support for India’s permanent membership of United Nations Security Council.
These accords had made the US emerge as one of the top three military suppliers for India, along with the likes of Israel and Russia.
This is how the April 2011 report of the prestigious 1916 US think-tank “Brookings Institute” had described these Indo-US deals: “During the trip, Obama announced that the United States would sell $5 billion worth of US military equipment to India, including ten Boeing C-17 military transport aircraft and GE 404 engines. Although the details are still being worked out, these and other contracts already in the works will propel the United States into the ranks of India’s top three military suppliers, alongside Russia and Israel. With India planning to buy $100 billion worth of new weapons over the next ten years, arms sales may be the best way for the United States to revive stagnating US-Indian relations.”
In 2005, President George Bush had granted India an unprecedented nuclear deal, offering to assist India’s civilian nuclear programme in contravention of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.
According to the US Department of State’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, America also happens to be India’s largest investment partner.
The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs says in its most recent report: “The United States is India’s largest investment partner, with a 13 per cent share. India’s total inflow of US direct investment was estimated at more than $16 billion through 2008. India’s external debt was nearly $230 billion by the end of 2008, up from $126 billion in 2005-2006. Foreign assistance was approximately $3 billion in 2006-2007, with the United States providing about $126 million in development assistance.”
History shows that Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who is considered a key figure in the introduction of Hindu philosophies of Yoga to America and Europe, had actually laid the foundation stone of Indo-US relations in 1893 when he had captivated the audience at Chicago by introducing Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893. (References: Page 600 of Feuerstein George’s 2002 book “The Yoga Tradition, Motilal Banarsidass” and page 209 of Peter Bernard Clarke’s 2006 book “New Religions in Global Perspective”)
