Hillary Clinton's current visit to India almost completes the reversal of alliances.
During the Cold War the United States favored Pakistan, a leader of the "third world" that received military hardware from the Soviet Union, over India.
At present, the United States, that has already endorsed a permanent seat for India on the United Nations Security Council (China has as well, provided that India disassociates itself from Japan's bid), asked India to take a greater leadership role in Southeast Asia.
The counterpoint to the Clinton visit to India, however, was the arrest by the FBI of a Pakistani American and an arrest warrant for another on the charge that they served as front persons for Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) in a bid to influence American politics by channeling Pakistani government money to select candidates.
This was a violation of the US law that prohibits foreign governments from contributing to American political campaigns as well as a law that requires people serving as lobbyists to register with the US government.
It is no secret that the United States is wary of a rising China and seeks Indian involvement as a balance right now when the United States is too economically drained. Clinton was careful to state the position delicately claiming that India and the United States had shared values on issues such as maritime security (as opposed to China's claim to the entire South China Sea) democracy and human rights (the latter issues are areas where China's record has been far from outstanding).
To avoid embarrassing her hosts and infuriating the Chinese, Ms. Clinton balanced this by saying that "India, China and the United States will have to coordinate our efforts."
As the United States is on course to withdraw from Afghanistan, it wanted, on the one hand, to reassure India while at the same time soliciting greater Indian involvement.
The withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan was not tantamount to America's disengaging, sid Hillary. "America would continue to help, but at the same time, India could help ensure stability in Afghanistan particularly when it came to the economic realm".
In Pakistan the newspapers scoffed at the idea of an Indian role in Afghanistan. Typical was Azhar Masood in the Islamist The Nation.
He advised the United States, that had merely brought chaos, to " only deal with key players for a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Afghanistan. These players are Pakistan, Iran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan itself." He warned India not to entertain pretensions of playing the role of the eagle when in central Asia it could only be a sparrow.
Mindful of the recent terror attack in Mumbai, Clinton promised to pressure Pakistan to fight terrorism a fight that was ultimately in Pakistan's interest as in Pakistan more people were killed as a result of terrorism than in the United States.