Issue 8.5 - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

Building the India-US Partnership
Washington, DC: President Barack Obama’s first
presidential visit to India offers a unique
opportunity to cement a global partnership with a
rapidly emerging power. Set to become the world’s
third or fourth largest economy by 2030, India could
become America’s most important strategic partner.
In coming decades, a strong bilateral partnership will
prove vital in managing the rise of China and
promoting an Asian balance of power that is favorable
to India, the United States, and Asia as a whole. India’s
success as a democracy also strengthens freedom
globally and protects broader American interests.
Yet, as many observers have noted, US-India
relations have recently become listless and marked
by drift. Both countries are to blame. Obama has
understandably focused on competing priorities,
including the troubled US economy and ongoing
wars abroad. India’s government has been similarly
occupied with domestic political struggles and the
challenge of sustaining economic growth amid
rising pressure for redistribution. Moreover, Indian
officials must still nurture the small, albeit growing,
constituency that supports a rapidly transformed
relationship with the US.
For its part, the Obama administration should take
a number of steps to reaffirm its support for India’s
rise, its democratic achievements, and its struggle
for security. Notably, the US should reaffirm its
support for a larger Indian role in international
organizations and help integrate India into the
global non-proliferation regime.
In this context, the Obama administration should
endorse India’s quest for a permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council. Obama
48 | Bhavan Australia | Nov 2010
should also support India’s membership in key nonproliferation
organizations like the Nuclear Suppliers
Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime.
India, too, must do its part. It can begin by creating
greater opportunities for US firms—including from
the nuclear industry—to invest in India’s economic
success. It can expand defense cooperation beyond
purchases of American-made military equipment by
deepening its diplomatic engagement with the US to
help find solutions to the difficult problems stemming
from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. In short, India’s
government should look for ways to sustain
America’s interest in India during difficult times.
Both countries should consolidate their
cooperation in other areas already agreed upon:
agriculture, education, health care, energy, and
science and technology. Obama’s trip offers an
opportunity for taking stock, expanding initiatives
that have matured, and announcing new projects
that will provide global benefits.
The latter include developing an international food
security initiative, cooperating to increase
vocational training in fragile states, expanding
clean-energy research, investing in global diseasedetection
systems, and collaborating to explore
shale-gas extraction. In addition, the US and India
should create innovation partnerships, which would
not only yield direct returns to both countries, but
would also demonstrate how a strong bilateral
relationship can improve the international system.
Ultimately, a strong US-Indian partnership is in both
countries’ strategic interest. Their societies are
already intertwined—and will be even more so in
the future—by various personal, economic, and
social links. Moreover, Obama should resist the
urge to approach the bilateral relationship purely
in transactional terms, but instead should seek to
strengthen India’s long-term capacity to be a
productive partner with the US.
In short, Obama ought not to ask, “What will India
do for us?”, but rather, “Is a strong, democratic and
independent India in America’s national interest?” If
the answer to this question is yes—as it should
be—then the US should focus on how it can help
India’s power continue to grow.
Ashley J. Tellis, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, helped to
negotiate the US-India civil nuclear agreement. He
is the author of a new report, “Obama in India –
Building a Global Partnership: Challenges, Risks,
Opportunities,” from which this article is adapted.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2010.
Source: www.project-syndicate.org