On Iran , there's tensions. In May 2008 India's then foreign secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon, met the U.S. ambassador after a stopover in India by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Menon did not like Ahmadinejad's "self-congratulatory, self-referential" style, but cautioned that "this government has to be seen following an independent foreign owner, not responding to dictation from the U.S.". Another cable describes Indians as "loth to admit publicly that India plus the US have begun co-ordinating foreign policies". Mr. Menon told one top visiting US official that there was no "big idea" to energise Indo-American relations.
In the face of pressure from American diplomats to encourage democracy in Burma, Indian officials are frank. One, in 2004, is reported as saying that Aung San Suu Kyi's "day has come plus gone" adding that the UN has small credibility plus the EU is "obvious, shabby, shortsighted ... to play a meaningful role in the country".
Yet a different reading of the meeting was possible. When Shriver congratulated Ms. Gandhi for her resoluteness plus called her "courageous", her interlocutor was "clearly embarrassed by this adulation". Invited to a "women's conference" in new york, Gandhi "made no dedication to attend."
The relationship between India plus the U.S. appears best characterised by a 2006 meeting between Maria Shriver, wife of the new york governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, plus Sonia Gandhi. The meeting, U.S. diplomats reported, went well. "Usually withdrawn plus reserved ... this was a more relaxed Sonia, possibly because they felt a personal rapport with Maria Shriver," one official wrote to Washington.
