Will Joe Biden be bold enough to walk the talk on India-US ties?

File image: US President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden attend a COVID-19 memorial event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, United States on the eve of his inauguration as the 46th President. (Image: Reuters/Tom Brenner)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his seventh visit to the United States since 2014; and this comes a month after the Taliban’s effortless takeover of Kabul which had confounded India’s worries about the regional security situation.

Besides attending the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and taking part in the first-ever in-person summit of the Quad grouping comprising the US, Japan, Australia and India, Modi will use the opportunity to review and reinforce the strategic partnership between New Delhi and Washington.

When Modi met Joe Biden last in 2014, the then Vice-President had said the two sides should be “bold” in building the India-US ties as the defining partnership of the 21st century ambitiously and rapidly. (The ‘defining partnership’ was a coinage used by former US President Barack Obama, who Modi met in White House four times.) Seven Septembers later, Biden is hosting Modi in White House as the US President.

India and the US have for long remained close partners in Afghanistan. However, the way the end-game of the US war on terror unfolded in Afghanistan on Biden’s watch has brought in a litany of concerns for India. The Taliban is leading a non-inclusive government emboldened by the fact that many world capitals had rolled out the red carpet to them even when an elected government was in power in Kabul.

Whatever happens in Afghanistan, most countries, including the US, are looking the other way, rejoicing in the completeness of their limited vision of how terrorist networks operate in the region.

Playing its double game to perfection with the US, Pakistan extracted its pound of flesh while assembling a Taliban-regime of its imprint in Kabul. Geography can be an inconvenient reality. The US war on terror might have made the US outside its mainland more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, but the US mainland, nestled in a peaceful periphery, has become certainly safer after the 9/11 terror strikes.

As the US war on terror in Afghanistan, which is also the longest war that the US has fought in its history, came to an abrupt end for all practical purposes, India, a contiguous neighbour of Afghanistan, is left to feel the heat. India made considerable investment in building both capacity and institutions in Afghanistan in the last two decades. But everything has come to a hopeless pause.

Whatever happens in the deliberately ungoverned Afghanistan-Pakistan region has serious internal security ramifications for India. This region is littered with a network of freelance terrorist outfits, many of whom are under State patronage. It is not that the US is oblivious of any of these. But India needs the US walking the talk on addressing the challenges of terrorism in the region more than ever.

Since security-cooperation is at the heart of any strategic partnership, how far the US would understand India’s concerns will be an important marker in deepening their defining partnership. When Modi takes the podium at the UNGA, it will be another opportunity for India to tell the world about these questions requiring urgent resolution.

The Prime Minister will be addressing the Quad summit, where China is in the elephant room. Though Biden is cautious on China wherever it is the better part of valour, he is unambiguous about the challenges that Beijing precipitates for both the Washington and New Delhi.

Addressing the UNGA, Biden said: “We'll stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones, whether through changes to territory by force, economic coercion, technical exploitation or disinformation. But we're not seeking — I'll say it again — we are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs.”

But the real challenge before the Quad is how far the US is going to loosen its purse strings on countering China’s economic clout. There has been no dearth of statements of intent from the grouping on countering the influence of authoritarian China unabashedly using its debt-trap financial assistance model or showing little regard for territorial integrity on matters that require negotiated settlement.

A host of areas ranging from quality infrastructure to supply-chain management have been touted as areas where the Quad can actually lead the way with its democratic values, consultative approach, respect for human rights and technological know-how. However, the grouping is yet to come with a realistic and realisable plan. That will be the real challenge before the grouping.