Friends And Benefits: Overlapping interests between India and US show that a formal alliance is not necessary for a solid relationship

Source: The post is based on the article “Friends And Benefits: Overlapping interests between India and US show that a formal alliance is not necessary for a solid relationship” published in The Times of India on 22nd June 2023

Syllabus: GS 2 – Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests..

Relevance: About India-US relationship .

News: Indian PM is on a visit to the US. This visit might bury the framework that seeks to understand geopolitics through the prism of alliances.

Why the time for formal alliances have waned?

During the Cold War period, many nations functioned based on alliances.  Even today, formal alliances do exist between the US and Japan. But their essence has changed since the days of the US-Soviet rivalry.

Unlike the Cold War, today’s poles, the US and China, have intertwined economies. Now, the nations started moving towards prioritising alignments over alliances.

How have India-US relations evolved so far?

India-US relationship over the last 18 years has taken place in the shadow of China’s economic uprise and its subsequent revisionism. India’s unsettled border dispute with China made an overlap of interests with the US. Across the world, countries are showing flexibility in adapting to an era of two economic giants (the US and China) locked in a strategic rivalry.

But, India’s economic growth has put India within striking distance of being the third-largest economy after the US and China. At the current rates of growth, India’s economic size should overtake Germany by 2027-28 and Japan by the end of the decade.

India’s growing market and supply capabilities have made India to be part of the initiative on critical and emerging technologies (iCET) with the US.

India is ideally placed to grab economic opportunities coming out of the US and China rivalry.

What should be done?

India and the US have an overlap of interest in multiple areas. For instance, India’s burgeoning diesel and ATF exports to the EU in 2022-23 cushioned the fallout of Russia sanctions there. These overlapping interests make an option for a solid relationship.