The present state of affairs indicates that India will continue to be a reservoir of talent for other countries to power their growth, than the global innovation powerhouse that it aspires to be.
President Obama made history by coming to office with the promise of working towards a nuclear weapons-free world. Envisioning a new non-proliferation momentum, Obama promised to revive the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) system and create nuclear security and energy architectures that will secure nuclear materials and make proliferation difficult. A year later, Obama realised the difficulties of selling his vision to his bureaucratic-military establishment, which resisted efforts to reduce the role of nuclear weapons while pushing for nuclear modernisation.
The amendment of the EAR is intended to realign US export policy towards India and expand cooperation in civil space, defence and high technology sectors.
Defence diplomacy helps build trust and confidence between nations and facilitates cooperation at political and economic level. This is evident from the growing US-India strategic relationship. Since the end of the Cold War, the US-India relationship has been evolving and “reaching new heights”. In this budding relationship, the most visible manifestation is cooperation in the sphere of defence.
A widening gap between rhetoric and reality will only lead to cynicism, and the gap can be narrowed only by establishing habits of cooperation that can withstand the vicissitudes of change, whether it be of governments or priorities.
The best approach for India and the United States will be to work towards incremental improvement in the relationship and focus on those areas which have a direct impact on the people of the two countries.
The joint statement on nuclear issues reflects the combined endeavour of the two countries to find a new common ground, though the final outcome reflects the struggle of the traditional contending approaches of India and the United States.
The removal of some organisations from the Entity List has merely removed a layer of controls and there is no guarantee that all dual-use curbs on India would go.
