India-US Relations Post Cold War

 

India and the US hasn’t always been an ally. In fact, it has been a bit of a rocky relationship. India followed the policy of non-alignment movement which suggests that India along with other developing countries like Egypt and Yugoslavia will not align themselves with any of the major political power bloc. But during the 1971 Indo Pak war, the US sided with Pakistan. The Pakistani ties with China and the US threatened India's position and she realized that being friendless isn’t a very great idea in a world which only works for self-interest and power hence she signed a 20-year defense treaty with the USSR, further deteriorating US India relationship. In the year 1991, the finance minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh under the leadership of PM PV Narshimha Rao introduces the policy of LPG i.e., liberalization, privatization, and globalization, and opened up Indian markets for foreign competition which acted as a catalyst for the economic growth of India the following decades.

This promoted deeper ties between the two powers and in turn, they became pretty close allies. But it was not until 1998 that India became a major strategic ally for the US as in 1998 both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons underground and both of the countries faced criticism on the international stage for it. President Bill Clinton went as far as imposing sanctions on India for it, which is required under US law. Although these sanctions didn’t last very long for India, they affected the relationship very badly. “Officially” it went to being estranged again but India had already become too important for the US to lose. In the unipolar world post, cold war China was emerging as a global power from Asia which threatened the US’s position. It needed a powerful ally in Asia to maintain the power balance of the world. India, which was now a recognized nuclear-weapon state, could serve as the much-needed ally of the US. In the Kargil war, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was summoned by the US president, following which the Pakistani PM withdraws his forces from beyond the Line Of Control.

By the year 2000 US had lifted all the remaining sanctions it had imposed. India even received more than $175 million in form of humanitarian aid which was 45 times larger than the aid received by Pakistan. The war on terror was also one of the major opportunities for the US-India relationship as both of the countries suffered from terrorist activities. India had claimed to have a great interest in counterterrorism. As we enter the year 2005 we witness multiple moments which strengthened the ties of the two democracies, such as the visit of US Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice which starts a dialogue on energy security despite India's possible energy cooperation with Iran, as well as the signing of new defense framework pact which bought the countries together in counterterrorism, maritime security, disaster relief, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Following which the two countries signed a landmark Civil Nuclear deal, which ended the three-decade-long US suspension on nuclear energy trade with India and separated India’s civil and military nuclear facility.

 

Under the leadership of President Obama US-India grew even tighter, he even backed India's position for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. After the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the countries got nothing but closer as china grows stronger US’s need for a strong ally in Asia increases even further. Firstly, “the world’s fate will be decided in the Indian Ocean. Whoever controls the Indian Ocean, controls Asia because this ocean is the key to the seven seas” and hence in order to maintain its presence in the Indian oceans the US needs to maintain its relationships which were escalated by the frequent meets and visits of the leaders of the two countries. But recent affairs might have negatively affected their relationship. During the early phase of the Corona virus pandemic, the US was the worst affected country in the world and India had provided it with hydroxychloroquine when she needed it the most. But now in 2021 when India, after helping almost the whole world by providing them with made in India vaccines, is reporting the highest number of Covid cases the US had followed the policy of ‘America First’ and turned its back on India and banned the export of raw materials for Covid Vaccine to India. But later succumbed to India’s diplomacy and global pressure and lifted the ban after a call with NSA Ajit Doval.

 

The crux of the discussion –

The US needs India as a counterweight to balance the power in Asia and against the rising power China. But India has spent 70 years dictating its own direction and more or less not dependent on any other country and because of that India doesn’t need the United States as much as the United States needs India.

 

- Mayank Singh Chandel.