P.J.S. Sudhakar Naik asked: Is it justified to call India and the US as natural partners since there are several dissimilarities between the two though both are democracies?

Saroj Bishoyi replies: Yes. Despite existing differences between the two countries, it is justified enough to call India and the United States (US) as natural partners. It may be recalled that it was in September 1998 when former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in his address at the Asia Society in New York had famously described India and the US as natural partners for the first time. In his address, re-counting the shared values and interests between the two countries, he had also listed the ‘incomprehensible’ hurdles which he believed posed major obstacles in developing a strong India-US strategic partnership. Those hurdles were: the US position on India’s membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and export control regimes; lack of recognition of India as a legitimate nuclear power; imposing technology restrictions; the US policy towards South Asia; differences over developing cooperative arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region; and finally, a lack of understanding in the US about India’s vital security concerns and strategic interests.

Since Prime Minister Vajpayee’s 1998 address, India and the US have come a long way in addressing these hurdles. For instance, during his visit to India in November 2010, President Barack Obama supported India’s membership in the UNSC and also in the four international export control regimes – the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Australia Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA). Prior to that, the US initiated a strategic partnership with India in 2004 and finally signed the nuclear deal with India in July 2005. With it the US finally recognised India’s nuclear status and lifted its longstanding embargoes on civil nuclear cooperation. Earlier, during the 1999 Kargil war, the US for the first time supported India in the history of India-Pakistan conflict and played a critical role in defusing the crisis. Since then the US has also significantly shifted its policy stand on Kashmir issue which had been a major bone of contention between the two countries.

Compared to earlier times, the US was certainly now more sensitive to India’s security needs. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the George Bush Administration lifted most of the remaining economic and military sanctions on India which paved the way for high technology cooperation. On Asia-Pacific, there is a great deal of complementarity between the US’ rebalance strategy and India’s Look East Policy towards the region. In 2012, the US termed India as a ‘lynchpin’ in its rebalance strategy; and, the present US Administration considers India as a ‘defining’ and ‘indispensable’ partner in the 21st century.

However, as national interests and foreign policy of nations keep changing with change of time, new challenges and differences also keep arising. Nevertheless, the two sides have made significant progress in their relationship over the last decade. The partnership between the two countries now covers almost the entire gamut of human endeavour, including trade and investment, defence, technology, energy, education, counterterrorism, and environment and climate change. Today, the values and interests of the two countries converge more than ever. In fact, the relationship is defined by these shared values, convergent interests, and similar security challenges that both nations face in the 21st century.

However, the relationship deserves a much higher place from its present status in view of increasing convergence of interests on a wide range of issue. President Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their September 2014 Joint Statement have agreed to take the US-India Strategic Partnership to a new height by significantly enhancing their cooperation on existing areas, and also finding new areas for collaboration and mutual benefit. They in fact vowed in the Vision Statement issued on the occasion to make the US-India Strategic Partnership “a model for the rest of the world.”

Posted on December 03, 2014