Boosting Bilateral Relations | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction:

India-Australia 2+2 Dialouge

• They also reviewed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and resolved to continue close cooperation for mutual well-being and towards advancing their shared objective of an open, free, prosperous and rules-based Indo-Pacific region. Prime Minister Modi also met US Vice President Kamala Harris and both the leaders discussed the COVID-19 situation in their respective countries, including ongoing efforts to contain the pandemic through expedited vaccination efforts, and ensuring supply of critical medicines, therapeutics and healthcare equipment. They also acknowledged the importance of collaborative action on climate change and discussed areas of future collaboration, including space cooperation and Information Technology. Prime Minister Modi also held first in person Bilateral summit meeting with US President Joe Biden with both leaders discussing how to enrich further the Comprehensive Strategic Global Partnership between two countries. In this show we will discuss and analyse various aspects of India’s bilateral relations with these three nations and understand.

Importance of Indo-US relations – Why India Matters to the USA?

• India is an indispensable partner for the United States. Geographically, it sits between the two most immediate problematic regions for U.S. national interests.
• The arc of instability that begins in North Africa goes through the Middle East, and proceeds to Pakistan and Afghanistan ends at India’s western border.
• The Indian landmass juts into the ocean that bears its name. With the rise of Asian economies, the Indian Ocean is home to critical global lines of communication, with perhaps 50 percent of world container products and up to 70 percent of ship-borne oil and petroleum traffic transiting through its waters.
• India’s growing national capabilities give it ever greater tools to pursue its national interests to the benefit of the United States. India has the world’s third-largest Army, fourth-largest Air Force, and fifth largest Navy.
• All three of these services are modernizing, and the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy have world-class technical resources, and its Army is seeking more of them.
• India is an important U.S. partner in international efforts to prevent the further spread of weapons of mass destruction.
• India’s broad diplomatic ties globally (most importantly in the Middle East), its aspirations for United Nations (UN) Security Council permanent membership, and its role in international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency makes New Delhi an especially effective voice in calls to halt proliferation.
• India’s position against radicalism and terrorism corresponds with that of the United States.
• India’s English-speaking and Western-oriented elite and middle classes comfortably partner with their counterparts in U.S. firms and institutions, including more than 2.8 million Indian Americans. The U.S. higher education system is an incubator of future collaboration, with more than 100,000 Indian students in American universities.
• As India modernizes and grows it will spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure, transportation, energy production and distribution, and defence hardware. U.S. firms can benefit immensely by providing expertise and technology that India will need to carry out this sweeping transformation.
• India-USA cooperation is critical to global action against climate change.
• India is genuinely committed to a world order based on multilateral institutions and cooperation and the evolution of accepted international norms leading to accepted international law.
• Indian culture and diplomacy have generated goodwill in its extended neighborhood. New Delhi has positive relations with critical states in the Middle East, in Central Asia, in Southeast Asia, and with important middle powers such as Brazil, South Africa, and Japan—all of the strategic value to the United States. India’s soft power is manifest in wide swaths of the world where its civil society has made a growing and positive impression.
• Indian democracy has prospered despite endemic poverty; extraordinary ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity; and foreign and internal conflicts.

Importance of US to India:

• America remains the critical stabilizing force in Asia through its military and diplomatic power projection and commitments to the region.
• The twentieth century bore witness to a multigeneration U.S. efforts to prevent the emergence of any hostile hegemon on the Eurasian landmass, a function that the United States continues to fulfil today with the help of its Asian partners.
• China has chosen episodically to ignore global nonproliferation norms, a pattern of behaviour that the United States has assiduously sought to curtail. Though no nation can a priori prevent future Chinese proliferation activities, only a U.S.-led international effort has any chance of success.
• India will be better able to protect its national interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan in coordination with the United States.
• The United States will continue to be important for India’s economic success. India’s economy has been built around unleashing domestic consumption rather than relying on exports.
• The United States has also remained one of the top sources of foreign direct investment in India, bringing important managerial expertise, capital, and technology with it to the dynamic Indian market.
• The United States has a long-term commitment to maintain security and freedom of navigation on the high seas, something critical to India as a net energy importer.
• Washington retains unparalleled power and influence in global governance institutions.
• As India seeks a larger role in the UN Security Council and international monetary institutions, U.S. support for India will be critical to reforms that benefit New Delhi’s national interests.
• The United States retains a sizable technological edge on many commercials, aerospace, and defence technologies, the access to which benefits Indian national interests as well as Indian firms and customers.

Conclusion:

• It appears highly likely that in strategic, political, security, defence and economic terms, relations between India and the USA will continue their upward trajectory
• Impact of USA’s relations with Pakistan over India is likely to be beneficial and positive. Geopolitical maneuvers can have significant impact on India-USA relations, however, it would remain to be multi-faceted and an “indispensable partnership”.