Another American strategic ally is unhappy and considering exchanging Obama with Putin. THE ART OF DECEPTION - Nirupama Rao’s visit would serve notice on the Obama administration:

The Americans are aware after what Rao has been telling them this week that unless they change their ways of dealing with Singh’s government, Barack Obama’s forthcoming State visit to India will be a pale shadow of Putin’s working visit last week. It ought to make those from Obama’s administration at the HTCG meetings — who are engaged in a comprehensive reform of US export control systems through its “National Export Initiative” — sit up and note that while Indian companies are still on their “Entity List” for restricted dealings, Putin, for instance, agreed not only to let India use Russia’s famous “Glonass” global positioning system for military purposes but also signed a joint-venture deal to produce the navigation equipment.

It was on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran — which Rao recently visited — that she did the most plain-speaking with her US interlocutors. She may have convinced the White House and the state department that if the US looks at Afghanistan through unifocal Pakistani lenses at this critical juncture, other countries such as India, Iran, China and Russia, which have interests in Kabul, will fight that trend with some degree of coordination. But the problem is that the Obama administration is in a bind. The swagger among Pakistanis that they have had their way in Afghanistan is proof that the US has surrendered beyond redemption to Rawalpindi’s army general headquarters on Kabul.