The honeymoon between the US and India seems to be over. But there’s plenty that both sides can do to get things back on track.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the US-India partnership is losing momentum under President Barack Obama’s stewardship.
Fortifying the alliance was always bound to be a secondary priority for any administration faced with a recession, a flagging war effort in Afghanistan, political stalemate in Iraq, stalled Middle East peace efforts, defiant pariah regimes in Iran and North Korea, and strategic tensions with China. Still, allowing the partnership to falter appears to have come easier to a president who never quite displayed George W. Bush’s zeal for Indian-American ties.
Of course it isn’t just the US that’s at fault—problems also exist on the Indian side as New Delhi has itself fallen into a form of post-honeymoon malaise, as the phase of grand political gestures gives way to tough technical negotiations. But rather than mitigate the downside of this difficult period, the Obama administration is pursuing an agenda that further complicates it. In doing so, it risks some of the tremendous gains made in US-India relations over the past decade.
In some ways, Obama is less guilty of undercutting the foundations of the US-India partnership than he is of failing to meet expectations. Indeed, to its credit, the administration has gone out of its way to stress the importance of the bilateral relationship, praising India as an ‘indispensable partner.’ In June, Undersecretary of State William Burns reaffirmed that the US government was ‘deeply committed to supporting India’s rise and to building the strongest possible partnership between us.’
The remarks came on the eve of the inaugural Strategic Dialogue between the United States and India, a bilateral, top-level dialogue initiated by President Obama to pull India toward diplomatic parity with China. During the same speech, Burns moved the US closer than it’s ever been toward openly supporting a permanent seat at the Security Council for India. Obama also extended Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the honour of his first State Dinner last November. However, this last gesture was widely perceived as compensation for an uninspiring first year in US-Indian relations.
So what went wrong? Obama first raised Indian eyebrows in 2006, back in his days as a junior senator from Illinois, when he introduced two amendments to the landmark US-India nuclear deal tailored to restrict India’s access to nuclear fuel supplies. The move was a bid to bolster his non-proliferation credentials in Washington, but earned him few friends in New Delhi.
Then, as a presidential candidate, Obama earned the ire of the Indian media when he reportedly considered appointing a special envoy to oversee/arbitrate the hyper-sensitive Kashmir dispute. That mandate was eventually withheld from Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but first impressions are hard to reverse. Scepticism about Obama’s agenda was reinforced when, as president, his initial foreign policy priorities—namely non-proliferation and global warming—placed the US and India on opposite sides of the international negotiating table.
Photo Credit: Uniphoto Press
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harry
In China we see americans today as a poor homeless mental patient who is losing control of Asia and pacific to China. this is also appearant in America’s recent pathetic attempt to threaten China by using military exercise. It is crystal clear that American can never compete with China in terms of economy in the Asia pacific so they bring out their little george washington carrier.
Will america trade China(its biggest creditor) for india? not in a million years.
Will Japan trade China(its biggest export market) for india? not in a billion years.
Will south korea trade China(also one of its biggest export market) for inida? never.
to some ignorant people commenting here, no country in the world sees democracy as a national interests, its always economy that is the first and foremost national interest, simply because most countries are capitalist and like america big coporations can lobby the government on deplomatic issues and stance.
China is because China is a very efficent state capitalism, The Chinese government had openly stated that human rights can only be built on efficent economy and governance.
India on the other hand is a corrupt beaurocracy, who think democracy happens when you say it happens. Indian politians are drunken idealists who cant see the realilty–Poverty rate India over 30%, CHina 7%– literacy rate India 66%, China 93%.
Rajesh
as you pointed out “state Capitalism” . Which is anachronism in itself. People in the world arent fools, they want to profit from China’s huge economy but nobody want to depend on them.
As for Chinese govt., good for you “Harry” if you like being sent for “reeducation” everytime you piss off a bureaucrat.
India may not be the economic dynamo in the short run, but it will get there on the longer run. frankly i prefer it as the govt keeps out of business.
As for dissing the U.S., nobody and i mean nobody is heading to China to live but boat loads of chinese want to live in the U.S. Criticize it all you want, but the world over its not even a close choice.
Chris
With China showing its true colors so early, it is imperative for US to court India like its is currently courting ASEAN. Same way, India too needs US to balance China and its perennially crisis ridden terrorist neighbor.
One thing is for sure, if China does not change its bullying tactics, expect ASEAN, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, US and too some extent may be even Russia planning more cooperation to ‘manage’ the ‘peaceful rise’ of China. Economically too with Wests own markets getting saturated courting India is a good hedge against China.
Had China given good response to Obama’s earlier gestures for G-2, US may have continued to ignore ASEAN and India. But since China has not done so, US and India’s relations are automatically going to improve further…
Alan J Mason
Why follow the US when it’s pretty obvious that the future is a Chinese Indian pact!
Don’t worry about war. It’s not gonna happen; it’s just paranoia!
Rajesh
ahh well, the comments are littered with Proxy Pakistanis and Chinese who praise their totalitarian systems. Well good for them . If they both are so great why the hell arent they happy to stay there ?
India is a young nation/old land, democracy suits its way of growing. It has poverty, lack of education and lack of capital. But it is also young and ambitious.
Whether the US under Obama brings ties closer or not, will not change the trajectory of 1.6 billion Indians. The challenge they face is to be true to themselves and their commitment to finding a future that reflects their own culture. My Culture. To find a balance between community,family and a career, to eschew the blatant materialism of the west and embrace the spirituality inherit in itself. Democracy gives us a forum, however faulty, to address it !
Daulat Ram
What’s there to fix?
India is a shambles, a cruel joke…..Obama has shown common sense in distancing the US from it.
The big difference between India and China is that China is a strong country, but India is very weak.
The Indian state is unbelievably ineffective. There is food in India but it rots in government sheds because the state cannot distribute it to a starving people – over half of all Indian children are miserably stunted and under-weight. India has by far the greatest concentration of the most poor and suffering people on earth.
Even Pakistan is better off in terms of nutrition. Seeing the TV footage of Pakistani flood victims I could not help noticing they generally looked well-fed compared to Indians.
Indians have no clean water and most do not have sanitation. They have little hope of hospital treatment. There is massive illiteracy which the government does not even try to tackle.
The Indian state is unable to control its borders. Pakistan, a country one-sixth the size of India boldly send killers into India to wreak havoc, and all the Indian government does is bleat to America. It is helpless.
Huge parts of India are not controlled by the Indian state but in the hands of separatist, Islamist or Maoist insurgents. The Indian Army is helpless in dealing with these mortal threats.
India’s Muslim population is growing by leaps and bounds, and will number many hundreds of millions soon. They are getting ever more restive, and that spells doom for India.
No point comparing this shambles with China.
All India unfortunately has in abundance are some middle class boastful Indians. A small minority of Indians are doing well, but the rest are in the direst straits.
India is hopeless.
The US is much better off cutting deals with China and Pakistan – which last can cause it serious damage.
I am an Indian, but if I were Obama I would pay no attention to India.
Aj
Daulat Ram
Do you go to every possible site (economist included) to say that you are Indian? You should change your username, its getting a bit old really.
Lynn Smith
That US-Indian ties would suffer in an Obama Administration was completely predictable.As with Israel, no nation in a life and death struggle with Islamic totalitarianism will ever mesh with Obama.This will change, happily, in two years time
Dcarlos
Greetings Jeff M. Smith,
Nice article.
We Indians feel that the problem is with Mr. Obama’s roots.. passing nuclear bill and accepting defence/security co-operations will not change his mindset.. hope you can understand what I’m trying to hint! Things will change after the next US elections.
Thank you very much
Dcarlos