Narendra Modi’s recent trip to New York and Washington ended on a positive note in terms of US-India relations. The romance that both these countries are enjoying, particularly after 2001, became cold in recent years. In less than a week, Modi has once again reinvigorated these dwindling relations and has turned them into an optimistic, new storyline. It would be premature to talk about the fruits of the visit in real terms. However, Modi and Obama have revived lost energy and straightened the direction of bilateral relations. It can be said that Modi’s quest for tapping into economic resources wherever he can find them and the US’s ‘pivot’ strategy brought both the countries together and changed their relations to ones on a ‘strategic level’.
Modi, during this visit, communicated to the US, particularly the US business community, that India wants to engage on a myriad of issues from trade to climate change, and from cultural to defence and security cooperation. Also, he successfully activated the Indian US community in favour of reinvigorating the bilateral partnership that had lost its attractiveness in recent years. It was something that was not predicted when Modi was elected into power. Modi was not a good guy for the US and he had little incentive to have warmer relations with the superpower. Instead, he focused more on Asian neighbours, including Japan, Australia and China.
When Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was in opposition, it had negative views about the US. In the decade-long rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), it dismissed the legacy of “natural allies”, referring to India and the US, during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. One must not forget how the US rejected Modi’s visa and blacklisted him for 10 years. In fact, his followers also argued that the US must apologise to Modi before he travelled to Washington. However, since Modi came into power on the slogan of rejuvenating India’s economy, he overruled these sentiments and effectively used the first opportunity to visit Washington.
He is aware of the benefits of expanding cooperation with the US in pursuing India’s developmental agenda and his policy of projecting India as a great power in the region, and in the world. India’s quest to be recognised as a great power is not new. Even during the Bush administration in 2005, President Bush stated that it was in the US’s interest to assist India’s rise to great power status. Such views are also followed by the current US administration when it vows to campaign for India’s permanent seat in the UN Security Council. But Modi, unlike the previous Congress regime, is not panicked at the thought of drawing close to the US. He certainly wants to set his own terms for an equitable and mutually beneficial relationship.
His first visit to Japan and the recent visit of the Chinese president to India shows that India wants to widen its foreign policy bracket and that it does not want to be limited only to the US. On the question of economic reform, Modi made it clear that he was going to do it his own way, what he deems fit for India’s interest. The prime minister promised to make it easy for US citizens to invest and do business in India, and invited them to take commercial decisions on the basis of practical evaluation of the new possibilities in the country rather than an abstract discussion on reforms.
Modi also adopted a more pragmatic approach towards resolving multiple differences with the US. Previously, it was enough to follow the US narrative in trade, climate change or civil nuclear liability. It was rooted in India’s lack of self-confidence and the inability to understand its own long-term interests. Now, India is assured of its rising stature in the comity of nations and is ready to address world issues on the basis of mutual benefits: give and take and not only give. On geopolitics, too, Modi is shifting from the traditional relationship with the US that is marked in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Traditionally, India looked towards the Pak-US relations as against its own interests because Pakistan has always been the long-term recipient of US military aid. Now, India wants to explore new opportunities for cooperation with the US in stabilising Afghanistan and sees the US’s relations with Pakistan not through the traditional security-oriented lens. Also, India welcomes the US’s involvement in East Asia and is not hesitant in engaging the US in the Middle East.
Restoring a relationship after a break up is never easy. In 2005, when the US adopted the policy of raising India’s stakes internationally, the world was at that time unipolar and Delhi was politically unprepared to jump onto the bandwagon. A decade later, the US has greater stakes in India’s success and Modi has brought much-needed clarity to Delhi’s strategic calculus on the US. If the expansive agenda unveiled by Modi and Obama is matched by bureaucratic purposefulness in Delhi and Washington, India and the US have a second chance at building a strategic partnership of considerable consequence.
The writer is a political scientist based in Islamabad. His area of interest is US foreign policy. He tweets @hassanshahjehan