Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist January 2019 | Page 8

INDIA-US RELATIONS
TRANSFORMED BEYOND
RECOGNITION
BY AMB SURENDRA KUMAR
I
n the last seventy years, the relations between India and
the US, especially since the visit of President Bill Clinton
in March 2000, the fi rst by a US President in 22 years,
have been transformed beyond recognition; it has become
a hugely multi-layered and multi-dimensional relationship.
With bilateral trade in goods and services in 2017 touching
$126 billion; the US investment in India of $33 billion and
India’s investment of $18 billion, defence exports from
the US in the last fi ve years valued at $15 billion, over
300 Joint Military Exercises; Malabar Exercise involving
India, the US and Japan drawing worldwide attention; more
than 20 bilateral Missions covering almost every sphere
of cooperation from agriculture to education and monsoon
prediction to outer space, 2+2 Dialogue becoming an annual
feature, the US President and the Indian PM meeting several
times each year in diff erent parts of the world and frequently
speaking with each other on the hotline, Nixon - Keesinger
duo’s attempts to intimidate India in 1971, before the birth of
Bangladesh, by moving the US Seventh Fleet in to the Bay
Bengal now seems a bad dream which occurred 47 years ago.
Since Indian PM AB Vajpayee described the US and India
as “Natural Allies,” and US President Clinton termed them
as “Strategic Partners” India has graduated to the level of a
major defence partner; the US has now accorded her STA-1
status which puts her on par with America’s closest allies
and facilitates her access to sophisticated technologies. On
her part, India has also overcome the “hesitation of history”
and signed the LEMOA and COMCASA which will enable
the Defence Forces of the two countries to share confi dential
and coded interoperable information and off er refuelling and
servicing facilities to each other. India hopes that the bilateral
defence cooperation will lead to joint research, co-production
and transfer of technology.
Partly dictated by China’s unprecedented rise, (world’s
largest manufacturer and exporter and the second largest
economy) China is the largest trading partner of 48 countries,
it’s BRI will connect 64 countries with projected investment
of $3 trillion; it’s lengthening shadows in Africa and
8 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 1 • January 2019, Noida