In the wake of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s state visit to the United States this November we opined last week that India matters. President Obama recognized that when he declared the country “indispensable” in the building of “a future of security and prosperity for all nations.” Nevertheless, in India, there is doubt about Washington’s sincerity.

Obama Administration officials publicly questioned the nuclear deal that was struck with India under George W. Bush — a deal that India considered the greatest recognition of its great power status in years. There is also worry that the United States is leaning too much on China and Pakistan in its attempt to successfully end the war in Afghanistan. And India dreads the prospect of American protectionism.

Writing for Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria neatly outlined once again why India is of much greater importance to American interests in the region than China, let alone Pakistan.

India matters in Afghanistan. Its economic potential is literally a hundred times greater. As the Taliban were forced out of power, “the cuisine, movies, and money that flowed into the country were, naturally, Indian.” With $1,2 billion in aid, India is the world’s fifth contributor to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, investing much more than China is. After all, it stands much to lose should the United States and NATO abandon the country. Pakistan might succumb to total chaos with terrorism dripping over the border into India.

American policymakers do not seem to grasp in full that India’s objectives in Afghanistan, unlike Pakistan’s, are perfectly aligned with their own — “to defeat the Taliban and to support the elected Afghan government.” Islamabad, on the other hand, “has long argued that it has a right to see a pro-Pakistani government in Afghanistan,” lest “India reign” in the word of one Pakistani general.

Zakaria concludes with the following wise words on why the United States should pursue the alliance with India above anything else:

Obama must keep in mind that South Asia is a tar pit filled with failed and dysfunctional states, save for one long-established democracy of 1.2 billion people that is the second-fastest-growing major economy in the world, a check on China’s rising ambitions, and a natural ally of the United States. The prize is the relationship with India. The booby prize is governing Afghanistan.