ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 26th June. Click Here for more information.
No longer seeing eye to eye?- India-US relation
Article
- Suhasini Haider, an foriegn policy expert, analyses India-US relation in the context of recent chnaging dynamics of India’s foreign policy
Important Analysis:
- Change in vision and relation of India and US is evident in the recent foreign policy speeches of PM Modi and U.S Defence secretary James Mattis at the Shangri-la Dialogue.
- Firstly, India and the U.S holds difference in opinion about Indo-Pacific region.
- According to PM Modi, Indo-Pacific region is not a strategic region but a free and inclusive natural geographic region.
- Mattis refers Indo-Pacific region as its priority in its security strategy. This is evident in renaming of Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific command.
- Secondly, India PM Modi mentions India’s good ties with US, Russia and China. While Mr Mattis referred to U.S National Defenfence strategy, which puts China and Russia as revisionist powers.
- Previously, India had the intention to counter China’s intervention in India’s neighborhood namely the post-Doklam.
- After a year when issues namely Doklam, BRI, have resolved, India holds a flexible foreign policy for China.
- Thirdly, another bigger challenge for the two countries is U.S. law called Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act and the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
- India is dependent on defence hardware from Russia and energy from Iran.
- If implemented, the U.S sanctions will have adverse affect on India.
- Fourthly, India and U.S. has been facing trade disputes. One of the major is the Harley Davidson motor cycle case.
- S wants India to to scrap its 75-100% tariffs on Harley Davidson because U.S imposes 0% tariffs on the imports of Indian Royal Enfield motorcycles.
- According to U.S, if India scrapes its rate of tariff then it would see major benefits in other areas of commerce.
- Fifthly,PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in a series of formal and informal summits. But the 2+2 meeting between Defence and Foreign Minsters of India and U.S is delayed for two year and finally scheduled for July 6, 2018.
