India-US relations: Set for a strategic upgrade

Washington's grand reception of Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite some unease within highlights the clarity of America's focus on the geo-strategic value of a deeper relationship

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a rousing reception last week at the White House from US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, and later from lawmakers too, when the PM addressed a joint session of the US Congress-a rare honour for a visiting leader from overseas. Modi's speech on Capitol Hill got standing ovations and was applauded numerous times. The visit had the world glued for clues of how a deepening US-India engagement will influence a global order being reshaped in a century that may soon have more Asian characteristics than American. Biden has framed today's global challenge as one of democracy versus autocracy. In ignoring, at least publicly, 75 fellow Democrats who called on him to raise India's human rights record with Modi, the US leader made it clear that Washington had a long-term prism for a "strategic partnership" which is set for an upshift that could tilt outcomes in our mutual interest. Away, that is, from China's, whose autocracy got a pointed mention from Biden on the eve of Modi's visit and expl