By Murali Krishnan,

New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) The Task Force on Global Strategic Developments constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has found that the convergence of interests between the United States and India for strategic collaboration is "phenomenal".

The report of the task force, headed by strategic affairs analyst K. Subrahmanyam, has dealt extensively with the nature of India-US partnership and what to expect from the tactical collaboration between the two countries.

The report, submitted its report to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) two months ago, focuses on what lies in India's long-term national interest and other aspects relating to cooperating with the US on democracy initiatives, on the energy issue and on dealing with terror.

"The basic thrust of the report is how to deal with the US and on what to expect as the convergence of interests is phenomenal. It is up to the PMO to make the report public now," Subrahmanyam told IANS.

"We have extrapolated on the balance of power game between both countries and arrived at our own strategic assessments," said another task force member.

Set up in November last year to study the implications of global realties for India's future, the task force also looks at US motivations for seeking a partnership with India and how best India can leverage it for better bargains.

With the strategic threat analysis undergoing a significant change since the 9/11 terror attacks, the task force also examined likely scenarios relating to maritime terrorism, terrorist threats to energy security, terrorism involving the use of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) material and terrorist threats to critical information infrastructure.

The idea behind constituting such a task force was to provide substance and rationale for the India-US strategic tie-up that came about as a result of the July 18, 2005, joint statement signed by Prime Minister Singh and US president George W. Bush.

The task force also wanted to seriously assess China's opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal and examine the reasons why it did not want India to grow faster.

"But we did not go into this issue in a detailed fashion. China figures peripherally in the report," said Subrahmanyam.

"Since the US expects to have India as a natural partner, and not a natural ally, we set out to examine the long-term implications of this partnership as it goes ahead," said one task force member.

The members of the task force include Prof. P. Rama Rao, ex-chief of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, R.K. Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Arvind Virmani, director, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Tarun Das, former DG, Confederation of Indian Industry, Air Marshal (retd) Vinod Patney, M S Ananth, director, IIT-Madras, Dr Amitabh Mattoo, vice-chancellor of Jammu University, and Uday Bhaskar, Deputy DG, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses.