India-U.S. embrace

Blinken said the two countries agreed to “stabilize” ties that had seriously deteriorated, but his call for “better communications between their militaries” fell on deaf ears. China was not ready to resume army-to-army contacts, something the US sees as crucial to avoid miscalculations and conflict, particularly over taiwanBlinken said after meeting with Xi.

Democracy and ‘autocracy’

The two high-level visits this week present a stark contrast: While the strategic trust between India and the US has been open and visible.

With Modi at his side, Biden told a White House news conference on Thursday: “One of the fundamental reasons why I think the US-China relationship is not in the space that it is with the US-China relationship. United States and India is that there is an overwhelming respect for each other because we are both democracies. And it is a common democratic character of our two countries… our people, our diversity, our culture, our open, tolerant and solid debate”.

While Washington has been framing the distinction in terms of a contrast between “autocracies” and “democracies,” New Delhi he has so far hesitated to publicly articulate this formulation.

In his address to the joint session of both houses of the US Congress, Modi said that “democracy is one of our sacred and shared values” and “in the evolution of the democratic spirit, India is the Mother of Democracy.” .

The United States “is the oldest democracy and India the largest,” and “our partnership bodes well for the future of democracy,” he said. “Together, we will give the world a better future and a better world for the future.”

The US Force Multiplier

When Modi told the US president that his personal commitment to India was inspiring New Delhi to take many “bold and ambitious” steps, the prime minister was looking for growth and development in this country.

New Delhi understands in very clear and unequivocal terms that it needs the United States and the West for its growth and development. Throughout contemporary history, almost every great power has emerged with the help of the US: Japan, Germany, and other Western European countries are good examples.

Now that India’s economy is on an upward trajectory, it has made a strategic decision to partner with the US to benefit from the economic, technological and military prowess of the world’s richest and most powerful nation.

China in the mind of India

What has also given New Delhi strategic clarity is China’s aggressive behavior along the border. In the past three years, while the Chinese have mobilized 50,000 troops in the Line of Actual Control, India has had to mirror the deployment. India is clear that it needs the help of the United States to counter the threat from China.

the war on Ukraine it has exposed Russia’s vulnerability and served India some reality checks. Russia’s “borderless” friendship with China is a cause for concern in New Delhi. Second, almost a year and a half of fighting has called into question the robustness of the Russian defense system. Third, Western sanctions have weakened Moscow’s ability to innovate and produce cutting-edge technology. India, overwhelmingly dependent on defense supplies from Russia, has cause for concern.

In his address to Congress, Modi said: “Dark clouds of coercion and confrontation are casting their shadow across the Indo-Pacific. The stability of the region has become one of the central concerns of our association”.

Thanks to the strategic impatience of President Xi, who has shed Deng Xiaoping’s dictum “hide your strength and bide your time,” Washington and New Delhi have grown closer than ever. That has manifested itself in collaboration in nearly every strategic sector, from space to defense to critical technology to semiconductors.

On both sides, win-win

India has an intrinsic advantage in its dealings with the US: the influential Indian-American community is well established in the US establishment, from CEOs to scientists, political operatives and civil servants, providing unparalleled access precedents to the levers of power in the American system. . This opens doors for India more easily than is possible for other countries.

India’s need for capital and technology can be met through the strategic embrace of the two countries, and Indian leaders have recognized this for the past two decades or so.

But Modi also made it clear that the US needs India as much as India needs the US, arguing to the Washington DC political class that it is in their interest to partner as well.

By way of context, he described the scale of the opportunities India offers: “We have delivered nearly 40 million homes to shelter more than 150 million people. That’s almost six times the population of Australia! We run a national health insurance program that ensures free medical treatment for nearly half a billion people. That is greater than the population of South America! We bring banking to the unbanked with the world’s largest financial inclusion campaign. About half a billion people benefited. This is close to the population of North America! We have worked on building Digital India. Today, there are more than eight hundred and fifty million smartphones and Internet users in the country. This is more than the population of Europe!”

As the two sides get to work to turn the ambitious 58-paragraph Joint Declaration into reality, both President Biden and Prime Minister Modi will be aware that the road ahead is fraught with challenges. It is perhaps appropriate that Biden has gifted Modi a book of poems by Robert Frost, whose ‘Passing Through the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ contains the immortal lines: “The woods are beautiful, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”