What the Biden years meant for New Delhi

PM Modi showed grace in visiting Delaware and thanking Joe Biden. It isn't Indian culture to discredit friends when they are down and out

- Prashant Jha

Joe Biden gave India one of its biggest recent diplomatic wins. By being flexible in the formulation around the Ukraine war, he paved the way for the New Delhi Declaration and made the Indian G20 presidency a grand success.

Biden inaugurated a new chapter in India-United States (US) technology cooperation. His national security advisor personally prodded semiconductor majors to invest in India, which has laid the ground for India's integration into global supply chains in the world of chips. On space, Biden pushed both invisible cooperation on the strategic side and the more public collaboration between NASA and ISRO. And on the knowledge partnership, he pushed American institutions to collaborate with Indian counterparts on scientific research.

Biden transformed the India-US defence relationship from merely a buyer-seller model to one that was based on co-production and co-development. Under him, both the departments of defense and State began serious work on export control restrictions that stand in the way of supporting India's rise as a defence industrial power. The GE deal may be delayed, but the scale of tech transfer envisaged remains unprecedented.

Under Biden, Indus-X represented the first concerted effort to link governments, academia, and industry with startups on both sides. Biden's tech confidantes kicked off a unique collaboration between US military command, a US defence major, and an Indian startup to set up a semicon fab.

Biden disproved the old perception in Delhi that India-US convergence didn't extend to the region west of India. By making India a partner in I2U2, a group with Israel and UAE, and then announcing IMEC, the ambitious corridor that seeks to connect India with West Asia and Europe, he recognised India's centrality in its extended neighbourhood. And with Quad, Biden cemented India's centrality in the Indo-Pacific.