Modi-Biden meeting takes India-US relations to a new high

PM Modi's visit, the events and ceremony surrounding it herald further US recognition of India’s emergence as a major player in the global context.

The Joint Statement issued by US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after their meeting on June 22, speaks of the two countries being “among the closest partners in the world”, and of a “new level of trust and understanding”.

Pride of place is accorded to the partnership in critical and emerging technologies, launched by the National Security Advisors of the two countries in January 2023. A $2 million joint fund has been launched for the joint development and commercialisation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies. Thirty-five “innovative joint research collaborations in emerging technologies” have been funded by US National Science Foundation and Indian Department of Science and Technology.

A Mutually Beneficial Relationship

Formal announcements were made regarding transfer of technology and production in India of GE F414 jet engines, enabling “greater transfers of US jet engine technology than ever before”; Micron’s investment of up to $825 million to build a new semiconductor assembly and test facility in India; Applied Materials' investment of $400 million to establish a collaborative engineering centre in India; and Lam Research’s proposal to train “60,000 Indian engineers through its Semiverse Solution virtual fabrication platform”.

The visit also opened the path for further defence collaboration. Going beyond just defence procurement by India, the two countries have now adopted a Defence Industrial Cooperation Roadmap; commenced negotiations on a Security of Supply Agreement, to prevent any disruption; and initiated discussion on a Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement, potentially creating opportunity for Indian suppliers.

A dialogue has been launched in new defence domains, such as AI and space. An US-India Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) was set up “as a network of universities, startups, industry and think tanks to facilitate joint defense technology innovation, and co-production of advanced defence technology.” The US Department of Defense Space Force has signed its first International Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with two Indian startups.

Unusually, several significant Indian investments in the US or in bilateral cooperation programmes have been noted: $140 million in-kind contribution by the Indian Department of Atomic Energy to US Fermi National Laboratory; and investments by India’s VSK Energy, JSW Steel and Epsilon Carbon Limited in solar, renewable energy and electric battery components.

This is another reflection of the mutuality in the  economic relationship. While US companies have by now invested up to $54 billion in India creating one million direct jobs, Indian companies have invested more that $40 billion in the US creating more than 425,000 jobs and have a presence across all 50 US States.

India Emerges A Major Global Player

The visit, the events and ceremony surrounding it herald further US recognition of  India’s  emergence as a major player in the global context. Hence, there was a reiteration of the importance of the Quad, with Australia and Japan, in the context of the Indo- Pacific; and the I2U2 (India, Israel, US and UAE) for cooperation in West Asia.

Several “elephants in the room” were addressed in the context of the visit. There has been an ongoing debate in US on whether India will or should be a formal US ally in view of India’s firm determination on maintaining “strategic autonomy”, and, therefore, how much should US  invest in or bet on the relationship. It is clear that a strong partnership, based on convergences, rather than an alliance with unreal expectations or negation of historical or geographical circumstance, is a more enduring path today in the framework of intense multipolar contestation.

Questions have also been raised about whether “America First” and “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” were mutually compatible. The decisions reveal that both stand to gain from their mutual investments in each other. The US is still the largest economy globally, India is the fifth largest and expected to become the third largest by the end of the decade. Indian tech human capital, based both in India and the US, contributes significantly to the US maintaining its global leadership in innovation in many cutting-edge technologies. If the US is to meet the growing economic and technological challenge from China, a partnership with a country with a population of 1.4 billion would be important for it.

It also shows that while the China challenge can be a catalysing factor, there is enough in the bilateral opportunities to sustain the partnership in an enduring way. The more than four million Indian origin diaspora in the US, with its mainstreaming in US politics, administration and business,  provides a firm bridge between the two societies.

With the firmer base and higher floor that has now been set for the partnership, it can expect to be consolidated further in the coming period, with two potential visits of US President Joe Biden to India, for the G20 summit in September this year, and for the Quad summit in 2024. The Joint Statement justifiably claims that “no corner of human enterprise is untouched by the partnership”, which “spans the seas to the stars”.

Arun K Singh is a former Indian Ambassador to the US. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.