India-US ties under Biden have deepened significantly, with the strategic partnership evolving across defence, technology, and economic sectors
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Prime Minister Modi’s bilateral talks with President Biden on 21 September at the sidelines of the Quad summit in Wilmington, Delaware highlights the important role played by the outgoing President in Indo-US relations.
This cannot be accounted for by simply listing the numerous areas in which the two countries collaborate and cooperate. It involves what India has long sought—an understanding from the United States (US) administrations that India is sui generis, and policy measures applied by the US elsewhere will not necessarily fit this country.
This has meant accommodating India as a Major Defense Partner, even though India is not a formal military ally and remains dependent on Russia for the bulk of its military equipment. Similarly, it involves the acceptance of India’s nuanced stand on the Russia-Ukraine war and its large-scale purchase of Russian oil. It is also reflected in the role that India plays as the lynchpin of Quad where it is the only member which is not a military ally of the US. This has also meant uncomfortably dealing with the alleged Indian transgression of being involved in an assassination plot of a US national.
it involves the acceptance of India’s nuanced stand on the Russia-Ukraine war and its large-scale purchase of Russian oil.
If proof was needed, it was available in plenty in the warm welcome that Prime Minister Modi received from President Biden in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware where he attended the sixth Quad summit and also conducted bilateral talks with his American counterpart.
Presidents, beginning with Bill Clinton have in their own way played the India card in a sophisticated and systematic manner. The dialogue between then Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh untangled the complexities of the Indo-US relations which had become strained due to the issue of non-proliferation-related sanctions. But it was to the credit of the George W Bush administration that clearly articulated the importance of India to America’s calculations.
Beginning with the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership in 2004, the relationship quickly moved to approve an Indo-US nuclear deal in 2005. The nuclear issue was a pill stuck in the Indo-US throat and the nuclear deal helped the two countries to successfully swallow it and clear the table for building the strategic relationship that we are witnessing today which was given expression by the “New Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship” agreement signed at the same time.
The green shoots of some of the developments of today were visible in the Obama administration. India began purchasing significant quantities of US military equipment, and more importantly, the US committed itself to a Defence Trade and Technology Initiative which addressed India’s desire to emerge as a defence technology player. Obama’s 2015 visit to India saw the two sides signing on a “Joint Strategic vision for the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Region”, a precursor of the Indo-Pacific ties that have subsequently developed. The Defense Framework agreement was renewed and India was deemed to be a Major Defense Partner in 2016.
Obama’s 2015 visit to India saw the two sides signing on a “Joint Strategic vision for the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Region”, a precursor of the Indo-Pacific ties that have subsequently developed.
The Trump administration was characterised by the enhancement of the official level contact which now took the form of regular “2+2” meetings between the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries. Several important building blocks were added—India signed on to three foundational agreements between 2016-2020, the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and the Basic Exchange Cooperation Agreement (BECA). Setting the stage for future defence industry collaboration, India was granted the “Strategic Trade Authorisation Tier 1 (STA-1) and then in 2019, it signed the Industrial Security Agreement (ISA).
It was Trump who finally committed the US to the notion of shifting geopolitical gears by renaming the “Asia Pacific” as the “Indo-Pacific” and even renaming the US Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command. And, it was during the Trump administration that the Quad was revived in 2017.
The Biden administration, therefore, had substantial foundations upon which to build and that is what was done. Biden has sought to be a transformative president in the US, seeking to shore up America’s alliance strategy and rebuild its science and technology capability and industrial capacity to meet the China challenge.
Early enough, the Biden administration understood that India had a unique role in American calculations. It was not a formal US military ally, yet it had to be the linchpin of any American Indo-Pacific strategy. So, the Quad which Biden elevated to a leaders-level institution, was steered towards a larger goal of taking on the Chinese challenge as a provider of public goods. As outlined by the joint statement of its consequential Tokyo summit of May 2022, this included peace and stability, global health security with an emphasis on COVID-19, infrastructure, climate change, cyber security, harnessing critical and emerging technologies, space-related applications, maritime domain awareness and coping with natural disasters and humanitarian relief. This was a Quad India could relate to and it did and played an active role in gifting vaccine doses to the Indo-Pacific region.
The qualitative shift in Indo-US ties began in 2022-23. At one level they were the outcome of the effort that had been undertaken in the previous two decades.
The Biden administration understood that India had a unique role in American calculations. It was not a formal US military ally, yet it had to be the linchpin of any American Indo-Pacific strategy.
The qualitative shift in Indo-US ties began in 2022-23. At one level they were the outcome of the effort that had been undertaken in the previous two decades. At another, they were the result of a greater urgency on the part of India in relation to China. Importantly, they meshed well with the US’ new international economic policy articulated by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that would be based on a new industrial framework which would emphasise the exploitation of emerging technologies as well as promoting green energy and “friend-shoring” its supply chains.
India and the US took a huge step in May 2022 when at the sidelines of the Quad summit in Tokyo, they announced an Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET)—a collaborative framework to enhance cooperation in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing, semiconductors, and wireless telecommunications. The process was driven by the two respective national security advisers—Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan .
Eight months later on 23 January 2023, the first meeting of iCET took place in Washington DC and involved the top science and technology bodies and officials of both countries. By its second meeting on 17 June 2024 in New Delhi, a clearer picture of iCET began to emerge as a key body towards deepening and expanding strategic cooperation between the two countries was set up. Along with the meeting was a business roundtable that brought together chief executive officers (CEOs) and thought leaders to mobilise private sector investment and partnerships.
By its second meeting on 17 June 2024 in New Delhi, a clearer picture of iCET began to emerge as a key body towards deepening and expanding strategic cooperation between the two countries was set up.
The efforts in a range of areas are ongoing, but already some benchmarks have been achieved such as the GE-HAL deal for the manufacture of the GE-414 jet engine.
A Joint Statement issued after the talks between Modi and Biden on 21 September listed the achievements arising out of the efforts of the past several years. These included the establishment of a semiconductor fabrication plant to make infrared, gallium nitride, and silicon carbide chips for defence and high-tech applications. Another project through Global Foundries was setting up a GF Kolkata Power Center for R&D in chip manufacturing linked to the Internet of Things (IoT), vehicles AI ,and data centres.
In addition to this, the statement listed the progress made under the US-India Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap which has prioritised the jet engine deal, as well as collaboration to make munitions and ground mobility systems.
When you look back at the trajectory of Indo-US strategic and defence ties since Clinton, there are periods of achievements followed by some stagnation. But what has been remarkable in the Biden era is the rapidity with which issues have been clinched and dealt with opening up a future rife with enormous possibilities.
Manoj Joshi is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
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Manoj Joshi is a Distinguished Fellow at the ORF. He has been a journalist specialising on national and international politics and is a commentator and ...
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