Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon was categorically told by the US that India must lower troop levels on the border with Pakistan as a first step to restarting the peace process.Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon was categorically told by the US that India must lower troop levels on the border with Pakistan as a first step to restarting the peace process.
What really took Menon by surprise was that the US State Department wanted India to pull back troops from the border with Pakistan.
India refused saying that it hadn't deployed extra troops after the Mumbai attacks. Rather it was Pakistan which has sent thousands of troops.
The reason is that President Barack Obama is gearing up to launch a bigger military offensive in Afghanistan.
For this, he needs more Pakistani troops to help along the volatile Afghan-Pakistan border, troops, which Islamabad moved to the Indian border.
The US move to pressurise India has outraged New Delhi, it told Washington that Pakistan is responsible for the tension and the troop build up.
But what India cannot ignore is the sub-text: That it is yet to establish a comfort level with the new Obama administration like it achieved with President George W Bush.
