Washington: President George Bush boarded Air Force One on May 30 bound for Europe and the Middle East amid clear cut indications that the fortunes of Russia and France were skidding while India was all set to be the flavor of the US administration at the G-8 summit.

Not only has Washington welcomed and supported Prime Minister Vajpayee's Kashmir and Pakistan peace initiative but the administration has also noted India's careful position on Iraq and the absence of public criticism of the war. This is an administration, which does not like its worldview to be challenged, and India did just that - it did not and quietly went about announcing unilateral peace initiatives on Kashmir and Pakistan.

But Russia and France did the opposite. What others did privately, they did publicly - and in the process earned the unforgiving ire of the Bush government.

Just hours before President Bush took off for the G-8 summit; the administration recommended a large cut in funding of aid to Russia - more than a third from the last fiscal year. This means that for every American dollar, which the Russians received last year they will now receive only 66 cents - a huge price to pay for not being America's friend at a time of war, especially if you multiply those 66 cents by over five billion dollars!!

In the case of France, the punishment is more severe. The US defence department has cancelled French participation in a major US military exercise set for this summer. Moreover, the administration has announced that it would make no concessions to those who opposed the war as they failed to demonstrate trans-Atlantic cooperation. The US is France's leading export destination and word has gone down all through the ranks that while American troops were getting ready for war in Iraq, the French foreign minister was travelling round the world building an anti-war coalition.

In these changing times, India stands to make dramatic gains according to long-time administration watchers. They say that this administration, like its origins in Texas, is great for friends and terrible for its perceived foes. While Bush will in all likelihood pass along his personal appreciation to Vajpayee at Avian, the US will look for an enhanced Indian role in Iraq and an Indian voice in the Middle East peace process.

At and after Avian, the Bush administration will invite India for specific task-oriented reconstruction projects in Iraq. Well placed sources say that what France and Russia lost could be India's gain both in Iraq and at the high diplomatic table of the Middle East.

Iraq's reconstruction is in the hands of the big American companies, which by themselves are essentially conduits for subcontracts reacting to political green signals from the Pentagon. With India being in favour, word has gone out from the administration to the big US companies that it is okay to subcontract Indian companies.

India's patience in dealing with Pakistan has also earned high marks. In fact as the administration builds a coalition of reliable friends for the mid-east peace process, New Delhi can count on being in that group which the US will turn to for counsel and behind-the-scene diplomacy. All of this will jump-start India's global economic and political profile and as one US source put it, "who knows it could also be India's ticket to the United Nations Security Council".

ANI