U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's visit to India earlier this month will set the stage for future relations with a nation now designated as a critical U.S. ally, experts say.
The July 18-20 visit underscores a shift toward integrating India more into the global economic community.
"It's an attempt to extend an olive branch," Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
U.S. President Barack Obama views India as a rising power that will be crucial to addressing global issues, she said. And with the president's focus on concerns such as climate change and global financial crisis, the United States is eager to get India -- the world's largest democracy -- on board.
The most significant part of the trip was Clinton's invitation to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the White House in November, experts said. That makes Singh the first foreign head of state to make such a high level visit under the Obama presidency.
But while many regard the move as an obvious next step, there are fears that Pakistan will view it as a snub, Innocent said.
During the Cold War, whenever the United States warmed to Pakistan, relations would cool with India and vice versa. And the fact that Clinton did not stop in Pakistan while visiting the region
-- her visit was aimed at highlighting the U.S. partnership with India -- may have also irked some Pakistani officials, she said.
Unfortunately, such a mentality is "somewhat intractable," she said. "The hostility between the two cannot be turned off like a light switch."
And given its booming economy and large population, India has unnerved some Pakistani defense officials, who feel encircled by India's rising influence, Innocent said.