Kudos for Obama on India, Africa Policies

President Obama deserves some credit for a couple of foreign policy efforts that are continuations of Bush policies.

In India, while Bill Clinton was saving Korean journalists, and despite Hillary getting a lecture from the Indian PM on global warming, the United States was continuing to make India a larger strategic partner.

In Africa, Obama himself took to lecturing the African nations on the need to stop blaming the West, and instead practice a little good government themselves. While President Bush started the focus on Africa, let's hope Obama, with his background, can convince African nations to lift themselves out of the poverty and despair that grips the continent.

Both these areas of the world are of vital importance and of strategic interest to the U.S. India can serve as a vital counterweight to the growing Chinese military and economic threat. In Africa, despite the hopes of AGW alarmists, we are beginning to find oil in abundance, particularly in the waters of Western Africa. Additionally, the continent is ripe for militant Islamists and we must tame that beast if we are to ever "win" the War on Terror. The Chinese are also our competitors here, and are making inroads in China. But, unlike the Chinese, we need to prove to Africa that we intend to stay, not rape them and take their resources.

Anyway, while there is much to dislike about Obama's policies, and his generally statist bent, these are areas where we can applaud his administration's (at least for now) direction.

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US to replace Russia as India's key arms depot.

I love that there's an English language version of Pravda. I doubly love that Naval OpenSource Intelligence is using it as their source for India's decision to primarily use the United States (vice Russia) as their arms supplier.

The Indians. Without them, the Chinese will rule the world.

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Indians hard at work

The Indians look to finally be getting some of the military hardware they have been trying to buy from the Russians. First, it appears the deal to get an Akula SSN is going through, and perhaps the Indians can take delivery as soon as 2009.

While it looks to take a little longer still (2012), the deal for the Adm Gorshkov aircraft carrier (nominally) appears to at least be back in negotiations, with the Indians being asked to shell out an additional $2B to get it completed. While the Indians talk of purchasing the USS Kitty Hawk didn't get them a lower price on the Gorshkov, perhaps it motivated the Russians to at least get moving.