India’s relationship with the US is the strongest it has been in years.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are set to satisfy for an additional bilateral meeting later Friday on the Group of 20 summit in Recent Delhi, after several one-on-one meetings earlier this 12 months.
Despite warming ties — with each leaders sharing a hug during Modi’s state visit to Washington in May — a “traditional alliance” between the 2 nations stays off the table, in keeping with the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I don’t think India and the US are headed for a conventional alliance relationship … India is keen to be sure it protects its ability to make its own decisions on every form of query,” said Alyssa Ayres, adjunct senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia on the Council on Foreign Relations.
US President Joe Biden and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an event with senior officials and chief executive officers within the East Room of the White House in Washington on June 22, 2023.
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India is a “very independent” country, and the normal alliance relationship the U.S. has with other countries “creates an almost unexpectable level of deference on the a part of the opposite country,” Ayres told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
“India very much doesn’t want … what it sees as its freedom of motion in the longer term, constrained by requirements to act on behalf of one other country on account of an alliance agreement,” Ayres added.
Each countries still have disagreements, with a notable one being their views on the Russia-Ukraine war, which Washington has condemned but Recent Delhi has up to now kept away from doing so.
India has purchased discounted Russian oil for the reason that war broke out in February last 12 months, and now imports about 40% of its crude supply from Moscow.
“Obviously, that is an area where American foreign policy leaders would love to see something different given American concerns about Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Ayres highlighted.
“So I feel that that is one more area where you do see some space between American interests and Indian interests … That is probably going to stay an area of disagreement.”
U.S.-India tech partnership
Although an India-U.S. alliance appears to be off the table, the partnership between the 2 countries will proceed to strengthen, with technology cooperation on the forefront of it.
In May, Biden and Modi announced a slew of technology and defense deals, starting from collaborating on diversifying supply chains to working together across space and artificial intelligence.
“Technology generally has really been within the lead in improving this relationship,” said Evan Feigenbaum, vice chairman for studies on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“For a very long time, people used to speak about India as a rustic that needed to be reformed. But increasingly, India has models and concepts and things which have been tested domestically that could be exported and scaled,” Feigenbaum told CNBC.
“They’re relevant in parts of the world, especially the worldwide south like Africa and the Middle East, way more relevant than the models the US and Europe has,” he added, citing the instance of how India’s digital infrastructure has helped the “unbanked develop into banked.”
“It’s something the federal government desires to showcase and it’s something you are going to hear quite a bit about at this G20,” Feigenbaum said.
