Last November, the highly anticipated White House meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President Barack Obama got off to a rocky start.

去年11月，众所期盼的印度总理辛格(Manmohan Singh)与美国总统奥巴马在白宫的会晤艰难开场。

Just days before the prime minister was scheduled to arrive in Washington, Obama was in China and the ，two nations released a joint statement that elicited a collective gnashing of teeth in India by suggesting that there may be a role for China to play in figuring out regional security.

就在辛格计划抵达华盛顿的几天前，奥巴马正在中国访问，中美两国发表联合声明，表示在地区安全问题上中国可能发挥一定作用，这引发了印度国内的普遍不满。

It took a lavish state dinner and a couple of gatecrashers to restore the sense that this was a relationship that mattered in the grand scheme of things.

在一顿丰盛的国宴和一对儿不速之客的拜访之后，这样一种感觉才得以恢复：在国际大背景下，美印两国关系很重要。

Not that the circumstances are exactly the same, but forgive us today a sense of deja vu.

眼下的情况与当时并非一模一样，不过，请原谅我们有似曾相识的感觉。

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been in India for the past two days, first in Delhi, then Mumbai. The visit saw a sudden spike in the use of the same vague buzzwords used heavily at the Washington summit: partnership, Cabinet-level meetings, dialogue, common purpose, etc., etc.

过去两天来，美国财政部长盖特纳一直在印度访问，先是在新德里，然后是孟买。访问期间，曾在华盛顿美印峰会上大量使用的含糊空泛的措辞突然再次频频出现：合作伙伴、内阁层面会议、对话、共同目标，等等。

Also, it had predictably fuzzy appearances by the Treasury secretary at a roadside stand that does mobile banking and at a roundtable with entrepreneurs in Mumbai on how to improve access to financial services.

此外，盖特纳还现身于一个从事手机银行业的路边摊位旁；在孟买与企业家举行圆桌会议、讨论如何改善获取金融服务。这样的画面不出所料地让人感到摸不着头脑。

All very nice but devoid of any news, either positive or negative. Then bam! A Treasury spokesman announces, in Mumbai of all places, that Geithner is going to jet from India to China to meet with his counterpart Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Thursday in Beijing. It was pitched as being a stop-off on his way home. (It's actually a very long way out of his way.)

这一切都很好，不过没有任何新闻，无论是正面的还是负面的。然后是"砰！"的一声，爆炸性新闻发生了：财政部发言人恰恰在孟买宣布说，盖特纳将从印度乘飞机前往中国，周四在北京与中国国务院副总理王岐山会晤。中国之行被宣传成是盖特纳回国路上的短暂停留。（实际上，远远不在他回国的路线上。）

'The secretary and the vice premier have been working together to find an opportunity to meet in person for some time,' Andrew Williams, U.S. Treasury spokesman, told reporters.

美国财政部发言人威廉姆斯(Andrew Williams)对记者说，盖特纳和王岐山一直在共同努力寻找会面的机会。

Finally, news from his India visit. Too bad it's about China.

盖特纳的印度之行最终传出了新闻。但太糟糕了，新闻是关于中国的。

Once again, China has overshadowed U.S.-India relations. That in itself is not necessarily a worrying thing. It suggests that the U.S. and China have a lot more contentious things to discuss than the U.S. and India, which is true.

中国再一次盖过了美印关系。这本身并不一定是件让人担心的事。这显示出，美中之间比美印之间有更多争议问题需要进行讨论，这是事实。

But with the U.S., in the eyes of some Indians, already doing too much to cater to the mercurial regime in Islamabad, the danger is that Geithner's departure for Beijing will further foster the sense that India is a third, or even fourth, wheel in U.S. regional relations.

不过，在一些印度人看来，美国已经做了太多来迎合巴基斯坦的善变政权。在这种背景下，盖特纳离开印度前往北京将进一步增强这样的感觉：印度在美国的地区关系中是多余的一方。

Paul Beckett

• minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中词汇)
• restore [ri´stɔ:] vt.(使)恢复；修复 (初中词汇)
• scheme [ski:m] n.计划；阴谋，诡计 (初中词汇)
• forgive [fə´giv] vt.原谅，谅解，宽恕 (初中词汇)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中词汇)
• premier [´premiə] n.总理 a.首要的 (初中词汇)
• actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中词汇)
• working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中词汇)
• departure [di´pɑ:tʃə] n.离开，出发 (初中词汇)
• relationship [ri´leiʃənʃip] n.关系；联系；亲属关系 (高中词汇)
• summit [´sʌmit] n.顶(点)；绝顶 (高中词汇)
• partnership [´pɑ:tnəʃip] n.合伙关系 (高中词汇)
• access [´ækses] n.接近；通路；进入 (高中词汇)
• positive [´pɔzətiv] a.确定的 (高中词汇)
• negative [´negətiv] a.否定的 n.否定词 (高中词汇)
• necessarily [´nesisərili] ad.必定，必然地 (高中词汇)
• regime [rei´ʒi:m] n.政体；社会制度 (高中词汇)
• foster [´fɔstə] vt.促进；推动；鼓励 (高中词汇)
• lavish [´læviʃ] a.慷慨的；浪费的 (四级词汇)
• roadside [´rəudsaid] n.&a.路边(的) (四级词汇)
• banking [´bæŋkiŋ] n.银行业 (四级词汇)
• collective [kə´lektiv] a.集体的 n.集体 (六级词汇)
• devoid [di´vɔid] a.无...的，缺...的 (六级词汇)
• spokesman [´spəuksmən] n.发言人 (六级词汇)