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U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace wrapped up his four-day visit to India on June 7. Pace indicated June 5 that Washington would accept India's test-firing of the Agni-III missile; the next day, New Delhi announced that the test-firing would take place in August. Pace also said the United States looks forward to India assuming greater responsibility in patrolling the Strait of Malacca.
Pace's trip to India marks the first time the highest-ranking U.S. military commander visited since Washington and New Delhi signed a 10-year defense cooperation agreement in 2005. That agreement set in motion negotiations of a U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear deal that involved the United States giving significant help in India's development of a nuclear power infrastructure in exchange for India's putting some restrictions on its military nuclear program. The nuclear deal has been stalled in the U.S. Congress; U.S. President George W. Bush has found it increasingly difficult to push his international agenda forward because of his precipitous decline in popularity in opinion polls. India knows that Bush has faced much opposition to the nuclear deal, and so put off testing its Agni-III missile for fear of further endangering the agreement. This is why India did not respond in kind, as it typically does, when Pakistan tested a missile -- the ShaheenII/HatfVI ballistic missile -- May 7.
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