Narendra Modi’s Deng Xiaoping moment

Source– The post is based on the article “Narendra Modi’s Deng Xiaoping moment” published in “The Indian Express” on 13th June 2023.

Syllabus: GS2- Bilateral groupings and agreements

Relevance- Issues related to bilateral groupings and agreements

News– US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to Delhi this week is expected to finalise the agreements that are to be unveiled during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington on June 22.

What is the new economic policy of the US?

The US plans to restructure the global economy. The new economic grand strategy of the US questions globalisation.

Biden is committed to ensure that foreign economic policy serves the interests of the American people.

The focus on “economic security” is central to Washington’s approach towards domestic manufacturing, international trade, technology coalitions, climate change, and multilateral development institutions.

This geoeconomic agenda reflects geopolitical priorities of the US. It is centred on competing with China, rebooting traditional alliances, building new partnerships, and constructing new regional and global coalitions.

How have Delhi and Washington overcome the geopolitical divergence in their bilateral relations in the second half of the 20th century?

There was deep entrenched scepticism within the strategic communities in both capitals.

India had historic hesitations in engaging with the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly discarded it when he last addressed the joint session of the US Congress.

One hesitation was related to India’s concerns about America’s relationship with Pakistan. Today Islamabad is marginal to the American geopolitical calculus.

In the 1990s, the Indian security establishment was deeply concerned about US meddling in Kashmir by the Bill Clinton administration. George W Bush took Kashmir off the agenda by ending the US activism on the question.

The nuclear dispute with the US was considered unresolvable since the early 1970s. Bush in 2005 altered the US domestic law on nonproliferation and signed a nuclear deal.

The US now has a bipartisan consensus on China’s challenge and limiting the possibilities for Beijing’s hegemony over Asia. This has coincided with the growing Chinese threat to India.

What is the future potential of a bilateral relationship between India and the US?

The US is eager to assist and benefit from India’s need to reduce its massive reliance on Russian weapons. Biden is now offering US technology and capital to expand and modernise India’s defence industrial base.

The challenge for Delhi and Washington now is to translate the new geopolitical convergence into concrete outcomes.

Today, the US is seeking India’s cooperation in restructuring the global economic order and making the world less vulnerable to Chinese pressures.

Unlike 1990s, India today is the world’s fifth-largest economic entity. For the first time since independence, India is able to shape the global economic order.

The current juncture could be seen as PM Modi’s “Deng Xiaoping moment”. Building on the geopolitical convergence with the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Deng rapidly transformed the Chinese economy.

The real challenge and opportunity today for India and the US lie in seizing the possibilities for geoeconomic collaboration.

It demands the kind of hard work that bridged the geopolitical divide between Delhi and Washington over the last three decades.