Opinion: India And US - From Estrangement to Engagement
NDTV
From the ice-cold chill of the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, where the United States, under President Richard Nixon, blatantly tilted towards Pakistan, to the warm camaraderie of the 21st century, India-US relations have come a long way. The ghost of the Seventh Fleet, which the US dispatched into the Bay of Bengal in a flagrant display of power, had cast a long, brooding shadow on Indo-US relations, a schism that took years of diplomacy to mend.
Nevertheless, in the subsequent decades, the two nations recognized the strategic value of each other and made relentless strides to bridge their differences. The economic liberalization policies enacted by India in the late 1990s and early 2000s served as a beacon for US businesses, marking a turning point in bilateral ties. The narrative further pivoted from discord to dialogue with President Bill Clinton's visit to India in 2000, which considerably elevated the tone and tenor of bilateral engagement.
The relations have come a long way from the era when the US imposed sanctions in 1974 after India conducted its first nuclear test, titled 'Smiling Buddha', to the surprise nuclear tests in May 1998, and the landmark civil nuclear deal of 2008. The nuclear deal signified a tectonic shift, lifting a protracted three-decade US embargo on nuclear trade with India. This move was emblematic of a substantive policy shift and underscored a profound alteration in the geopolitical alignment.
In more recent years, the relationship has been galvanized by a confluence of strategic interests, predominantly the rise of China. In today's landscape, the US-India relationship extends far beyond these earlier milestones, flourishing across a wide spectrum of sectors. The two nations now engage in deep-seated collaboration in defense, trade, investment, regional security, counter-terrorism, climate change, health, and science and technology. This multifaceted partnership, rooted in shared democratic values, respect for human rights, and adherence to the rule of law, stands in stark contrast to the turbulent dynamics that once pervaded the relationship. This transformation testifies to the resilience of international diplomacy in fostering cooperation even amidst divergent geopolitical pressures.
