Making the Indo-US strategic partnership the fulcrum of an emerging order in Asia and the Indo-Pacific should be the goal.
Author
Mohan Kumar, Professor & Dean, Strategic and International Initiatives, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Summary
Evoking respect is the necessary first step to eliciting a neighbour’s trust, not the other way around. A strong and prosperous India is bound to evoke respect.
Now that the new Lok Sabha has convened, here is a catalogue of foreign policy issues that call for priority attention from the Prime Minister and the external affairs minister.
Relations with the US will continue to be the most salient for India. And yet, extraneous issues keep cropping up acting as a brake in the otherwise vital partnership. It is time both sides recalibrated what they rightly call the most consequential relationship of the 21st century. More fundamentally, it will require re-imagining ties between the two countries leading to a fresh bargain.
This could, inter alia, involve India significantly upgrading its defence and security ties with the US, in exchange for the latter’s substantial commitment to advancing India’s strategic interests in its neighbourhood and the Indo-Pacific. It was appropriate that the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was one of the first foreign visitors to Delhi after the elections, for advancing the bilateral Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies.
Discussions on the joint manufacture of jet engines and armoured infantry combat vehicles are also making progress. All these are steps in the right direction. Making the Indo-US strategic partnership the fulcrum of an emerging order in Asia and the Indo-Pacific should be the goal.
Published in: Hindustan Times
To read the full article, please click here.
