Kanwal Sibal
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he India-US strategic partnership has become frayed. The rhetoric does not match reality. Several differences at the bilateral, regional and global levels have emerged. The fifth strategic dialogue on July 31 will have the task of putting the relationship back on track.
With Shri Modi’s ascension, the bilateral economic agenda could move, but, politically, the US has to build a relationship of confidence with him after heaping indefensible indignity on him on the visa issue. Even now no executive order has been issued formally overturning the State Department visa ban decision. President Obama did reach out to Shri Modi immediately after his election and invited him to Washington. Placing national interest over personal pique, the latter immediately accepted it, knowing that the perception of a malaise in our relationship with the US skews the balance in our foreign policy. However, the problem of establishing the right chemistry between Obama and Modi could remain.The new government’s gestures towards China have been singular. The Chinese foreign minister was the first foreign envoy received by Shri Modi — a Chinese coup upstaging Japan. The Chinese president will visit India in September. Our vice-president has visited Beijing to celebrate the Panchsheel Agreement even though it was brazenly violated by China. While China’s aggressive policies in western Pacific are causing wide-spread concern, this occasion, in which Myanmar joined, helped project China as a good neighbour.
This intensive engagement of China distances India from the US “re-balance” towards Asia. We are affirming the strategic independence of our foreign policy, to underline which the trilateral US-Japan-India naval exercises have been just held in the Pacific and major India-US naval exercises in the Indian Ocean will no doubt continue.
The forthcoming strategic dialogue is unlikely to achieve greater congruence of views on developments in the Islamic world and issues of terrorism and religious extremism. The US accommodates Pakistan, even though this non-Nato ally has inflicted huge casualties on the US forces through its support for the Taliban. This contrasts with the financial strangulation of Iran and the bullying of Russia. The US has removed secular regimes in West Asia, creating space for extremist ideologies to expand. Its dealings with the Taliban, its ambiguity in dealing with jihadi forces, its reluctance to nip the Islamic Caliphate in the bud, impinge negatively on us strategically.
Our nuclear liability act is a bone in the gullet that the US companies will not swallow and BJP cannot cough out by amending it, as the “objectionable” provisions were introduced by them. On the Defence Trade Initiative, it is doubtful if the US can partner the government in promoting local manufacture with technology transfers as US companies are the most restrictive in this regard. The US wants to displace Russia as our privileged defence partner, a political objective that is problematic for India.
Serious economic irritants have surfaced, with select US corporations targeting India’s investment, trade and IPR policies. If the new government’s priorities are infrastructure, manufacturing, energy security, greater foreign investment and expanding access to skills development and education, the US has limitations in fulfilling most of them. The US uses the strategic dialogue to promote its interest in the financial sector, health, innovation, green technologies, energy and agriculture. It is unwilling, however, to address long-standing Indian concerns on a number of trade and services issues. As regards ‘strategic cooperation’ on global issues, the India-US stand-off at WTO and Climate Change negotiations continues.
Our strategic partnership with the US should be built patiently on realities and not rhetoric, and it should be equitable.
The writer is a former
Foreign Secretary
