Demystifying Indo-US Natural and Strategic Partnership
| Published date | 01 July 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208817231203942 |
| Author | Baljit Singh Mann |
| Date | 01 July 2023 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00208817231203942
International Studies
60(3) 349 –368, 2023
© 2023 Jawaharlal Nehru University
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DOI: 10.1177/00208817231203942
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Research Article
Demystifying Indo-US
Natural and Strategic
Partnership
Baljit Singh Mann1
Abstract
India–US relations have witnessed diverse trends ranging from estrangement
to engagement followed by strategic partnership. They have signed various
agreements, such as DPA, CND, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA, to
institutionalize their strategic partnership. However, real-time challenges have
continuously shaped the trajectory of strategic alignment as their national
interests occasionally converged and often diverged. Their notions of world
order sharply contrast. New Delhi stands for a multi-polar world order,
whereas Washington advocates uni-polar world order. The US–Pakistan
alliance partnership has further proved an impediment to the Indo–US strategic
partnership. Hence, much claimed natural partnership has not been able to
make much headway as their national interests diverge on core issues such as
trade, immigration, joint and co-production, and world order. The mainstream
literature advocates that these are the teething problems of evolving strategic
partnerships, but the in-depth analysis indicates that issues confronting their
relationship are structural and deep-rooted. Realism, neorealism and social
constructivism prove appropriate tools to grasp the dynamic of Indo–US
natural and strategic partnerships by locating them in the global, Asian and
regional power structure.
Keywords
Act East, America First, geopolitics, Make in India, Pivot to Asia, Shangri La Dialogue
Introduction
India–United States relations have witnessed an upward swing from 2000
onwards, ranging from engagement to strategic partnership. The changing
1Department of Political Science, University of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Corresponding author:
Baljit Singh Mann, Department of Political Science, University of Jammu, Baba Saheb Ambedkar
Road, Jammu and Kashmir 180006, India.
E-mail: mannbaljit67@gmail.com
350 International Studies 60(3)
geo-economic reality has driven engagement and hardcore competition for
national interests, and their contrasting conceptions of world order and US
proximity with Pakistan resulted in uneasiness in their ties. The evolving
geopolitics and convergence of strategic interests in Asia, the Indian Ocean
Region (IOR) and the Indo–Pacific Region (IPR) have shaped their strategic
equation. The Indo–US strategic partnership started taking shape with the signing
of the Civil–Nuclear Deal on 18 July 2005, approved by the Nuclear Supplier
Group (NSG). India has been constructing a natural partnership with the United
States as per the logic of social constructivism; however, while engaging the
United States, New Delhi’s approach has been realistic as it pursued its national
interest without compromising its strategic autonomy – the core of its national
interest. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US President Obama
stated in 2014 that ‘we will have a transformative relationship as trusted partners
in the 21st century … our partnership will be a model for the rest of the world’
(Obama, cited in Ogden, 2018, p. 10).
India expressed eagerness to align with the US strategy of pivoting to Asia,
particularly Pivot to East, as its Act East Policy (2015) complements it. Indian
officials also noted mutual ties ‘rooted in shared values of freedom, democracy,
universal human rights, tolerance, and pluralism, equal opportunities for all
citizens, and the rule of law’, as articulated by social constructivism. India’s
growing concern about the threat posed by China to the regional order has made
it far more open to cooperation with the United States and its allies in pursuance
of the logic of neo-realism and evolving regional geopolitics. The Obama
Administration also stepped up efforts to engage with India. By the time Modi
made his fourth visit to the United States in June 2016, a sea change was witnessed
in their strategic relationship (Brewster, 2016, p. 6). The United States has
numerous security partnerships worldwide, but all these involve Washington as
the senior partner and security provider. With India, the United States is developing
a relationship with a power that considers itself a peer, morally and intellectually,
if not materially. India’s reluctance to commit to the relationship sometimes
makes it sound more like an alignment of convenience. In the long run, India
builds its national power, which will increasingly seek to promote its own strategic
space, including in areas where the United States is now the predominant power
(Brewster, 2016, pp. 7–8), as propounded by the realism that nation-states’
behaviour in bilateral relations is always determined by their respective national
interests.
They elevated their relations to a higher trajectory by signing Defence
Partnership Agreement on 3 June 2015 (Ministry of Defence, 2015–2016, p. 176).
The LEMOA was signed in August 2016 (Ministry of Defence, 2016–2017, p.
174) and indicated that India had become a close ally of the United States because
Washington had signed the Logistic Support Agreement-type agreements with
close allies like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines (Cherian, 2016a, p. 57).
The United States pressured India not to buy weapons from Russia and oil from
Iran, besides having a considerable divergence of interests on the issues of trade,
immigration, defence partnership and world order. On 6 September 2018, India
and the United States signed another agreement, the Communications,
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