Past few months have brought about many changes in the relations between India and the US. Most have been positive but there is obvious disagreement over certain issues, which in my opinion is healthy given the Non-Alignment stance of India. But there is no doubt that both Bush and Singh have made concerted efforts to substantially improve relations (not that they were ever bad).

(Taken from here)

• US agreed to provide India with civilian nuclear technology. This is despite the fact that India has not and will not in the near future sign the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty). This was announced during Dr. Singh’s visit to Washington this July.
• As part of the Global Democracy Initiative both India and the US have made financial and other commitments to promote the spread of freedom and democracy in the rest of the world. They both launched websites for the same here and here. What surprises me is that other countries like UK don’t seem to be playing an active role in it? From my perspective its more a matter of improving democracies rather than spreading democracies. That said no democracy is perfect.
• America’s image is strongest in India out of all the countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project:

The latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted among nearly 17,000 people in the United States and 15 other countries from April 20-May 31, finds that America’s image is strongest in India. Fully 71% in India express a positive opinion of the United States, compared with 54% three years ago.

• The US seems to have literally coerced India into voting in favor of the IAEA resolution against Iran. Am sure there will be all sorts of noises in India regarding this, and rightfully so I think.

Read about this here. For some reason this just cracked me up!

From Yahoo! News:

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking