India-US Strategic Engagements Since 1990s

 

Gh Mohd Sheikh

Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Political Science, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi.

 

ABSTRACT:

President Clinton made a decision to open new chapters of relationships with India. However, the relations have been dramatically improved since the President Bush’s assumption of office. The Bush administration made a strategic decision to build relationships with India. Strategic partnership between India and the US is based on mutual interests and values which provide a strong foundation to move ahead. The main objective of the paper is to focus on the Indo-US Strategic engagements since 1990s. The specificity of this study is to highlight the major developments of strategic cooperation between India and USA. For this study, secondary data have been used. The data has been collected from the books, research articles, newspapers and government reports. The paper has been divided into two parts; one a brief introduction. Second, India-US strategic engagements.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The world war second gave birth to the cold war, in which the world divided into two rival blocs; one led by capitalists (United States) and another led by the communists (Soviet Union). India not only achieved independence from the British in 1947 but also divided into two parts (India and Pakistan). India opposed the cold war bloc politics as innately conflict-ridden and later on India founded the non-aligned movement. This irritates US because the USA was more curious about its involvement in his group; in fact this was the beginning of strain relations between the two nations (Mahadevan, 2012).

 

Before the 1990s, bilateral relations between India and USA were lingering in tension and strains because of the non-aligned movement, the Cold War, the US inclination toward Pakistan, the Indo-Soviet bonhomie and the US disagreement over the nuclear policy of India and India’s refusal to sign the NPT. Besides this the major outcomes of the Indo-US relations are; official visits, the economic and food aid to India, establishment of Indian club, PL.480 agreement, financial assistance for Atomic Power Plant at Tara pore, nuclear deal, education cooperation, cultural cooperation, and etc (Kumar, 2012; Lele and Archana, 2010).

 

The Geo-strategic location of India proves a determining factor in Indo-US relations. The study throws light on development in strategic cooperation between India and the US after the 1990s. There is cooperation in combating terrorism, WMD, ensuring the security of sea lanes and certain other mutual exercises held to enhance operational capabilities. The Indo US partnership/ cooperation is not ‘only’ confined to certain related issues rather there are many strategic agreements between the two states leading to further strengthening (Bhattacharya, 2008; Mansingh, 2006).

 

India-US Strategic Engagements

The Clinton administration sought to gear up efforts not merely to increase sales based on specific reciprocity but toward a mutual exchange of information and personnel as well. The bilateral defense cooperation started with the “Kick lighter proposals” in 1992 that were aimed at the hitch of the negative trend in the bilateral defense relations in the previous years. This was followed by the signing of the ‘Agreed Minutes on Defense Relations’ between the two governments in January 1995. During the President Clinton’s visit to India in 2000, the State Department was able to set up joint working groups with India on counterterrorism as well as international peacekeeping and concluded agreements on several other bilateral issues (Sharma, 2013; Mukherjee,  2012).

 

The revival of the Defense Policy Group (DPG) in 2001, the escort patrols for American ships through the Malacca straits in support of Operation Enduring Freedom by the Indian Naval Ships Sukanya and Sharda took place in June and July 2002. During the same year, it witnessed the largest-ever US-India naval exercise, called ‘Malabar’. In October 2002, again in Agra, an air transport exercise named ‘Cope India-02’ developed a baseline for future interoperability and fighter aircraft exchange. Since then there have been joint military exercises on a regular basis (Rani, 2012; Khurana, 2007; BS Reporter, 2009).

 

On January 2004, the two countries signed the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) initiative that called for greater bilateral cooperation and easing of restrictions by the US in the areas of dual-use high technology goods (also those with military applications), civilian nuclear cooperation, civilian cooperation and stepping up dialogue on missile defense.

 

On March 2005, the United States announced that it would offer India co-production rights for both the F-16 and F-18E/F. On June 2005, the United States and India signed the landmark agreement called the “New Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship”, a 10-year defense-cooperation pact envisaging a wide range of joint activities, including multi-national operations in their common interest, collaboration to promote security and defeat terrorism, and enhancement of capabilities to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The pace of defense cooperation substantively increased since then. The exercise of the Malabar series took place in September 2007 in the Bay of Bengal for the first time as well as expanded to include Japan, Singapore and Australia, and involved 27 warships. The exercises extended up to the Strait of Malacca, the busiest waterway of the world. Though, china was skeptical of the military overtones of the exercise (BS Reporter, 2009; Khurana, 2007).

 

On June 22, 2007, the Indian Navy commissioned USS Trenton an amphibious transport ship, its first warship acquired from the US, as INS Jalashwa, in a deal worth $44 million. Also the largest US military firms, Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. Are competing with Russian and European rivals to supply India 126 multi-role fighters, a deal valued at $10 to $12 billion for which India invited tenders in August 2007 (Fair, 2005; Lokanath, 2012).

 

In 2005, both the countries decided to move beyond the NSSP to a strategic Dialogue. This Strategic Dialogue, for collaboration in a number of areas including energy, climate change, trade, education, and counterterrorism, was launched in July 2009. The growing camaraderie in bilateral relations also resulted in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh becoming the first state guest of the Obama Administration in November 2009. President Obama’s reciprocal visit to India, in November 2010, was particularly significant as he was the only American president, out of the six, to have visited India in the first half of his first term. The first and second session of the Strategic Dialogue, held in June 2010 and July 2011 respectively, led to extensive discussions on areas such as education, science and technology, defense, security and counterterrorism, trade, and women empowerment (Bhattacharya, 2008; Bishoyi, 2011).

 

The two sides launched the Homeland Security Dialogue in May 2011. They have discussed extensively on cooperation in areas such as global supply chain management in areas such as global supply chain management, megacity policing, combating counterfeit currency and illicit financing, cyber security, critical infrastructure protection, capacity building and technology upgrading. They have also resolved to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation, including through intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation, and access to advanced counterterrorism technology and equipment. Indian and US armies have undertaken joint maneuvers on counterterrorism as a part of their joint military exercise.

The Deputy Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, during his address to the Asia Society in New York on August 1, 2012 said that India-US relationship has a global scope, in terms to reach and influence of both countries. He also said that both countries are strengthening the relations between their defense and research organizations. While they have been pleased with the quality of the U.S. Weapons, the Indians have raised concerns about contract clauses forbidding the offensive deployment of these systems (Weitz, 2017).

 

CONCLUSION:

The end of the Cold War observed a new dawn vis-à-vis India –United States (US) relations as they lastly became free from the constrictions of a bipolar world. Today, India and the US reveal multipurpose relations ranging from political, strategic to economic and commercial ties. In other words, the end of the cold war brought a reflective modification in the strategic engagements of US interface with India. The Indo-US strategic engagement covers diverse aspects such as joint military exercise, sale of equipments, reciprocal visits by senior officials, as well as doctrinal exchanges. India and the US today recognize their importance to each other. This transformational change can be attributed to the changing balance of power in world politics (particularly in Asia). It increased recognition of common interests and shared values, India's economic growth and the increased influence of the Indian American lobby in the US. India is one of the few countries which have been mentioned in the U.S strategic defense guidelines as a long-term strategic partner which can "serve as a regional economic anchor and provider of security in the broader Indian Ocean region". Hillary Clinton’s article in Foreign Policy titled 'America's Pacific Century' announced the US 'pivot to Asia' talk about deepening ties with India. Similarly, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also described that India is the linchpin of the US rebalancing toward the Asia Pacific. Clearly, both the State and the Defense Departments agree on the importance of India for the US in the coming years.

 

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Received on 30.07.2018       Modified on 04.08.2018

Accepted on 29.08.2018      ©A&V Publications All right reserved