A window of opportunity - The Hindu

26th May 2014 -  Link

Development, for which India needs markets, investments and technology - The U.S. remains the prime source of all three.

How can US benefit from India

• Geo-strategically, some of the big issues that confront the U.S. today, China, Pakistan, and the shaping of the post-2014 transition in Afghanistan, all happen to be in India’s periphery.
• India’s contribution to stabilising the subcontinent.
• Underwriting its integration and development through its own growth.
• Investment in building regional infrastructure and connectivity.
• India’s growing role in protecting maritime routes in the Indian Ocean.

How can India benefit from US

1.India’s focus externally will be on improving relations with the contiguous countries, including China. Given our experience since Independence, this also requires better defence preparedness, for which the relationship with the U.S. will be critical in the years ahead.

2.The inept U.S. handling of its ties with Russia has cemented Sino-Russian strategic relations in a way that India’s preferential customer status of Russian defence supplies is now imperilled.

Reasons:

• The Skovorodino-Mohe pipeline project worth over $60 billion in investment, and nearly half a trillion dollars in overall value over three decades, is about to roll.
• Mr. Putin had given his assent for a deal to sell China — over the objections of his general staff — the state-of-the-art S-400 missile system, capable of shooting down all “enemy aerial targets that are known today.”.
• Talks are at an advanced stage for sale of Su-35 fighter aircraft to China.

Benefits of US relationships in this regard:

On offer from the U.S is 

• the ‘Javelin,’ said to be among the best available crew fired anti-tank weaponry.
• The co-development and manufacture of the next generation of such missiles.
• Long-range surface-to-air missiles.
• The next generation naval gun.

3.As the India-U.S. relationship gathered momentum, and an accord with the U.S. on peaceful uses of nuclear energy began taking shape, not perhaps as a consequence of but certainly as a sequel to it — there has been a spate of small successes in India’s interactions internationally.

 A case in point is the agreement with China in 2005 on the “Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question.” It was arguably the sole, significant success of the 17th round of talks of the Special Representatives negotiating the India-China boundary. This came when India’s global importance was at a high point, with flourishing relations with Russia, the U.S., the European Union, key European countries, and the start of warming relations with Japan.

The instruments of revival

The right mechanics must be harnessed by the US to revive the relationship between the two nations, some of suggested steps in that direction could be:

• A new U.S. Ambassador in New Delhi.
• An envoy soon to confer with India’s new leadership might be Vice-President Biden, who knows India better than President Obama does (that might also indicate that the White House is taking back the India account from the State Department).

When times are difficult, there is nothing wrong with a give-and-take approach, a prudent and practical engagement that looks at the relative costs and benefits and eschews normative arguments. The congruence of interests of India and the U.S. is self-evident. So also is the current hiatus in the relationship. There is a window of opportunity to resuscitate it now.