IAS Gyan

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Why does the deepening Indo-US friendship puzzle so many?  

9th March, 2021 International Relations

Context:

  • India’s expanding partnership with the US is marked by a fascinating political puzzle. The relationship has advanced by leaps and bounds even as doubters dominate the public discourse in both Delhi and Washington.
  • For months, analysts in Delhi and Washington expected a slowdown under the Joe Biden presidency. What we have instead is the likely elevation of the strategic partnership at the first-ever summit of the Quad nations scheduled for this week.

 

Background:

  • The Quad, or the quadrilateral security dialogue, brings India and the US together along with Washington’s long standing treaty-allies, Australia and Japan. That the Quad is meeting at the summit level, well before Biden has spent two months at the White House, underlines the growing gap between our foreign policy debate and policy.
  • The roots of this problem, on the Indian side at least, lie in the enduring reluctance of Delhi’s foreign policy community to either acknowledge or accept the unfolding transformation of India’s ties with the US.
  • It also rests in the continuing underestimation of Delhi’s capacity to rework its great power relations to meet India’s changing interests and circumstances.
  • The Democratic Party’s strong concerns on human rights, it was argued, were bound to undermine US ties with the Modi government.
  • It was widely held that the Indo-Pacific and the Quad will become footnotes in Biden’s foreign policy. This in turn was based on the bet that Biden is likely to embrace China rather than confront it in the manner that Trump did. All these assumptions turned out to be inaccurate.
  • Concern for democracy and human rights has always been part of US foreign policy ideology. But to believe that they will define America’s engagement with India required a leap of faith.
  • Biden has signalled more continuity than discontinuity with Trump’s China policy.

 

Most comprehensive partner:

  • The US is now India’s most comprehensive partner.
  • The Russia relationship is long on defence but short on commerce.
  • India’s commercial ties with China are large, but tilted heavily in Beijing’s favour.
  • Collective Europe is big on commerce but small on security cooperation.
  • The US has a sizable presence in both economic and security dimensions and the political common ground with India has steadily expanded.

 

Reason for upswing in relations:

  • One is the significant increase in India’s material capabilities. India’s aggregate GDP increased ten-fold between 1990 ($270 billion) and 2020 (about $2,700 billion) and pushed it into the world’s top five economies. These relative gains have immensely expanded India’s geopolitical possibilities.
  • Equally important is the new political will in Delhi. The UPA government (2004-14) made such heavy weather of the historic initiatives it had signed with the US in mid-2005. It struggled to implement the nuclear deal and started walking back from the framework for defence cooperation.
  • The NDA government had the political will to build on the US initiatives launched by the UPA government.

 

Conclusion:

The new India no longer wrings its hands in dealing with the US; it relishes the large room for strategic bargaining with America. Even more important, Delhi is no longer a reluctant partner to Washington. Over the last three years, it revived the Quad, shaped the coalition’s approach to strategic connectivity, and has demonstrated its leadership in vaccine diplomacy. Delhi is now well-positioned to raise the Quad agenda to a higher level at the digital summit of its leaders this week.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/quad-group-india-us-relations-joe-biden-7219965/