Modi¡¯s Visit To The U.S.: A Sum Of Many Milestones

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his state visit to the United States later this month will be speaking at a joint session of the U.S. Congress. The last time he spoke at such a session in 2016, Prime Minister Modi said, ¡°Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.¡± Indeed, the India-U.S. relationship which has been called a defining one for the 21st century has travelled a long way since a few decades ago, when the comfort of convergence witnessed today was almost unthinkable.

The Indian Prime Minister¡¯s visit will be high on optics and deliverables. Much spadework has been done for the upcoming visit, mostly focussing on growing defence trade and partnership on emerging technologies. However, it is imperative to note that the current bonhomie in the relationship comes because of evolving geopolitics and collective efforts through different political leaderships on both sides.

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Building India-U.S. Partnership: A Relay Race

The end of the Cold War necessitated a new churning in New Delhi¡¯s outlook towards the United States. India¡¯s economic liberalisation provided further impetus to economic factor becoming a pull for how Washington viewed India. India¡¯s decision to go ahead with its nuclear tests in 1998 was a major obstacle.

However, it did not take long for the two countries to start engaging in a series of negotiations over the contentious issue led by India¡¯s Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. India-U.S. relations turned a new leaf with the monumental visit of President Bill Clinton in March 2000.

The coming of the George W. Bush administration in the U.S. heralded a new era in the bilateral relationship, with China¡¯s rise and its strategic ramifications lurking in the background like a spectre. India was acquiring a new strategic value in the American beltway and New Delhi was coming around to recognizing strategic commonalities with the U.S. in Asian geopolitics. India¡¯s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went to the extent of calling, India and the U.S. as ¡°natural allies¡±.

This period saw intense negotiations for the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) and the ground-breaking India-U.S. civil nuclear cooperation agreement that created new habits of cooperation between the bureaucracies of the two democracies. The establishment of the India-U.S. Defence Framework heralded a new era, unlike anything seen before, in defence cooperation, which has only grown from strength to strength through succeeding administrations on both sides.

As the Obama administration decided to shift strategic attention toward Asia-Pacific to manage China¡¯s rise, India began to be viewed as a natural partner. In New Delhi, the change of guard from the Manmohan Singh administration to that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not alter the dynamics but rather strengthened the resolve on both sides to take the relationship forward.

The burgeoning defence trade and the interoperability between the militaries of the two countries grew dramatically as President Barack Obama became the first American President to come as the Chief Guest to India¡¯s Republic Day Celebrations in 2015.

Agency

Surfing the Indo-Pacific Waves

During President Obama¡¯s visit in 2015, India and the U.S. released a joint strategic vision on Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean, sort of a precursor to the Indo-Pacific era that would become the fulcrum of India-U.S. partnership.

Even the disruptive four years of the Donald Trump administration hardly rocked the boat. In fact, the Trump administration¡¯s focus on the Indo-Pacific as the primary geopolitical theatre where the U.S.-China competition would play out, and rechristening of the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) as the Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) highlighted India¡¯s centrality as the custodian of the Indian Ocean.

Agency

The tumultuous change of guard in the U.S., bringing President Joe Biden to the White House, has preserved the continuity of convergence in India-U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific. The India-U.S. ¡®2+2¡¯ Dialogue between the Foreign and Defence Ministries, multilateral partnership through the Quadrilateral Dialogue (Quad), growing military-to-military interoperability and efforts being made at both ends to shift towards co-development and co-production in defence technologies cements the uninterrupted support to this relationship, cutting through partisan lines in both countries.

Moreover, the relationship has become more comprehensive and increasingly multi-dimensional with a strong focus on cooperation in emerging technologies and their governance, shifting to green energy sources and jointly helping develop human resources through robust people-to-people ties.

The power of human capital to change perceptions, resulting to tangible policy outcomes cannot be overlooked in this relationship, witnessed in the positive influence that the resourceful Indian-American community has had on this partnership.

The upcoming state visit of Prime Minister Modi is not only significant for the deliverables that it promises amidst changing geopolitics, but also a moment to reflect on the many milestones that has, over the years, through changing political leaderships in both democracies, brought the relationship to this juncture.

*The Author is a Strategic Analyst based in India and the Honorary Director of the Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies (KIIPS). He is a regular commentator on International Affairs and India¡¯s Foreign Policy.