BISHALDEEP KAKATI/BAGMITA BORTHAKUR
“It is in our national interest to continue to strengthen our fast growing strategic economic and people to people ties with India, while also speaking forthrightly about human rights and our democratic values.” This was commented by Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, to the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in relation to Indo-Pacific powers. This statement is one of the direct reflection of the India-US relations in terms of defining alliance amongst the global powers. In fact, currently, both India and U.S are in such a position where both the countries need each other, and in the future, if proper diplomatic strategies and cooperation can be maintained between both the countries, there will be a win-win situation for both the nations.
On October 13, 1949, the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, visited the United States of America, to meet the U.S President Harry S. Truman. But India’s neutrality in the cold war came as an important factor to portray its leadership role through its policy of Non-Aligned Movement, which created constraints of distrust in the India-US relations, and that event can be regarded as one of the very first in the starting of US-India ties post Indian Independence.
However, stepping into the 21st century, the India-US relationship has slowly taken a turn for “global-strategic partnership” as both the countries share some common democratic values and similar interests in bilateral, regional and global issues. In fact, high level political visits of representatives of U.S to India and vice versa and exchange of dialogues have set a framework for ever expanding India-US engagement. Currently, India-US engagement has a multi-faceted dimension to it which involves trade and investment, defence and security, education, science and technology, cyber security, high technology, environment, agriculture, health, etc.
Many bilateral dialogues have already taken place between both the countries in sectors like homeland and security, financial and economic partnership, higher education dialogue, energy dialogue, etc. In fact, the initial two meetings of the strategic and commercial dialogue (at the level of EAM & MOS) were held at Washington D.C in 2015 and New Delhi in 2016. Moreover, India and US have also engaged in various dialogues at political and official levels on bilateral, regional and global issues and back in September 2015, a policy planning dialogue was also started between the two countries.
India and US relationship has also taken a major turn in terms of both the country’s desire to improve their bilateral trade matters and rejuvenate the trade engagement by the US-India Trade Policy Forum, expanding trade relationship as well as provide cooperation on different sets of issues. To further enhance the relationship between the two countries, both the countries have forwarded three foundational agreements, namely LEMOA (for the purpose of sharing of logistics), BECA (for the purpose of geospatial mapping), and COMCASA (for the purpose of sharing of real-time information for strong partnership). Along with this, there have been multiple coalitions between both the countries in modern sectors like AI, cyber, etc.
The defence sector as well has evolved as one of the major pillars of India-US strategic partnership. The signing of new framework for India-US Defence Relation in 2005, has further intensified defense trade, personal exchanges, collaboration and cooperation in maritime security, counter piracy, etc. Other defence dialogues between both the countries include, Defense Policy Group, Senior Technology Security Group, Joint Technical Groups, Military Cooperation Groups, etc. Added to this, India and the US also undertook a couple of days of naval exercise in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region to display their growing defence and military partnership.
In terms of space research and collaboration, the NASA and ISRO are also collaborating together, so as to enhance the proper management of natural resources as well as prepare for disasters. India and US have also come together for the purpose of maintenance of clean energy, keeping in mind the advanced American technology and the fast growing Indian energy market, as such, both the countries have planned to bring in changes to the current Energy Cooperation Framework. The President of US has already invited 40 countries of the world to the Leaders Summit on Climate, and India being one of the invited countries, must portray the contribution the country wants to make in order to achieve the ambition of a stronger climate.
The mutual cooperation that both the countries has displayed in the field of education as well, also has been an integral part of the relationship between the two countries. The higher education dialogue has already created the path for promoting research and development, partnership in vocal education, junior faculty development as well as institutional partnerships. In fact, India is also gathering knowledge from US, in order to meet the increasing demand for its skill development. The Global Initiative of Academic Networks can be considered a big milestone in this regard, as with this, 1000 American academicians shall be invited to teach in Indian universities, at their convenience to further strengthen the ties via education.
Indians also form an important part of the American population and as such, both the countries have been working together to facilitate travel of their respective citizens. Along with this, the Indian population residing in America acts as a catalyst in order to further strengthen India-US ties. India and US also share an attractive cultural cooperation and already in many universities of America, there are India-focused educational programmes and many private institutions of America also teach Indian cultural arts. The two countries had also announced their decision to celebrate 2017 as Travel and Tourism Partner Countries. Last but not the least, the Indian media too holds a strong place in the US and many newspapers and media organisations have correspondents in Washington DC and many other cities.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the India-US relations have evolved significantly over the years and development of bilateral ties in different sectors like trade and commerce, security and defence, education and research, etc, clearly indicate that the two countries are constantly working and willing to improve the relations to set a new benchmark in international diplomacy. But in the current context, the two countries via bilateral ties should also consider coming to a common platform to solve socio-economic as well as geo-political issues with a common notion, which would further elevate the importance of India-US ties.