Aligned but Autonomous: India-US Relations in the Modi Era

Aligned but Autonomous: India-US Relations in the Modi Era

Edited by Harsh V Pant and Vivek Lall

© 2024 Observer Research Foundation and Global Policy Journal. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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ISBN: 978-81-19656-86-8 (print); 978-81-19656-19-6 (digital)

Citation: Harsh V Pant and Vivek Lall, eds., Aligned but Autonomous: India-US Relations in the Modi Era (New Delhi: ORF and Global Policy Journal, 2024).

CONTENTS

1. Introduction: Modi Heralds a New Era in India-US Partnership - Harsh V. Pant and Vivek Lall

2. India and the US: The Diaspora, Democracy, and Diplomacy Trifecta - Dhruva Jaishankar

3. Modi and Obama: Leading a ‘Defining Partnership’ - Arun Kumar

4. The Trump Era in US-India Relations: Predictable Unpredictability - S. Paul Kapur

5. Modi and Biden: Between Continuity and Fresh Assertions - Sameer Patil and Vivek Mishra

6. India-US Technology Ties: Charting an Ambitious Course for the Future - Trisha Ray

7. Advancing Defence Ties: Matching Expectations - Vikram J. Singh

8. India-US Ties in the Indo-Pacific: Alignment, Convergence, and Parallels - Satu Limaye and Lei Nishiuwatoko

9. Institutionalising Bilateral Ties: Deepening Trust between Democracies - Ian Hall

10. US-India Cooperation Against Terrorism: Redefining Convergence Amidst Challenges - Max Abrahms and Soumya Awasthi

11. India-US Economic Relations: Resurgence Through Trade and Trust - Atul Keshap

1. Introduction: Modi Heralds a New Era in India-US Partnership

Harsh V. Pant and Vivek Lall

In June 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined an elite league of leaders, such as Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela, who have been invited to address the United States (US) Congress twice. In his first address to the joint meeting of the US Congress in 2016, relatively newly minted as prime minister, Modi celebrated how India and the US had overcome the hesitations of history and called upon the two nations to work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation (1). In 2023, this time basking in the prestige of India serving as president of the G20, he described the partnership between India and the US as the defining partnership of this century. He said: Through the long and winding road that we [India and the US] have travelled, we have met the test of friendship (2).

It has been a long and winding road indeed, not only for India and the US, but for Modi himself. For a leader who was shunned by the US for years, the June 2023 speech was momentous in the crafting of a more robust trajectory for India-US bilateral ties. For many who had assumed that the civil nuclear pact, signed in 2005, was the high water mark of bilateral engagement, Modi's push for greater synergy between New Delhi and Washington by burying shibboleths of the past has been a revelation. His leadership has been critical in ensuring that long-pending foundational agreements were finalised and new vistas were identified, including in the domains of technology and defence. Working with three US presidents of disparate temperaments over the last 10 years, Modi has succeeded in forging a personal bond with each one, keeping the focus squarely on the wider aim of strategic convergence.

This is not to say that there have been no differences; the relationship has continued to grow despite those differences. As US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer has suggested, there are several difficult issues that remain in the relationship right up to the present day (3). At the same time, he underlined that there is a bipartisan view in the US that both countries must seize the important opportunities that the world is presenting to the two sides, both geopolitically and economically.

This moment in the India-US relationship is, therefore, a unique and important one. In the words of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, there is structural soundness in the India-US relationship, and it is certainly proofed against political check (4). The world’s two major democracies are becoming more adept at overcoming the obstacles in their relationship, driven as they are by a singular strategic logic. It is now a strategic imperative for the two to work closely together to maintain a favourable balance of power that advances their key interests and sustains their values. This is particularly true in this age of the Indo-Pacific, with the rise of China paving the way for new challenges to emerge.

The US has understood that while a sustained focus on the Indo-Pacific is needed, it will have to be buttressed by strengthening old partnerships and building new ones. The ‘hubs and spokes’ alliance framework of the Cold War era is no longer tenable. Even as it may work with traditional allies like Japan, Australia, and South Korea—and reassure them of the US’s long-term regional commitment—it will be put to the test with newer partners like India, which may never enter into formal alliances. Informal, ad-hoc coalitions will have to be built to ensure that convergences can be exploited and divergences are managed. This will also require shedding older inhibitions about sharing critical technologies, given their centrality in shaping the 21st-century balance of power.

Yet this change and its acceptance across both sides of the political spectrum could only happen because India, too, has evolved in the last decade. Throughout the Cold War, New Delhi understood non-alignment as an instrument to achieve strategic autonomy by eschewing close partnerships. That understanding is being turned on its head, as Indian policymakers today deem strong partnerships as imperative means to enhance the country’s strategic autonomy. Issue-based coalitions are now the norm in India’s external engagements. India is no longer non-aligned but rather is willing to align according to particular issues. Such alignments will not mean formal alliances, but they represent a significant shift in Indian foreign policy discourse and practice.

This reconfiguration in India-US relations could not have happened without Modi’s stewardship of Indian foreign policy. In 2016, following his address before the US Congress, India and the US agreed to sign the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), a long-pending foundational defence agreement first proposed in 2006. It took approximately a decade for India to sign the agreement, mostly because New Delhi remained hesitant about entering into a close defence partnership with the US.