Close Encounters

Modi's US state visit has been a win-win for India, with New Delhi giving little away

- Seema Guha

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi's first state visit to the US was all that it was slated to be and went beyond the pomp and pageantry and the flattery to deliver what New Delhi had long sought from successive American presidents. For India, the transfer of critical American technology is at the heart of what President Joe Biden dubbed as the most defining relationship of the 21st century. It has the potential for India to leapfrog into the big league. Biden's decision to share US state-of-the-art technology with a partner that is not a close military ally of the US could, in time, prove to be a game changer in the power politics of international diplomacy. Yet details of the agreements are not known and the devil may be in the detail.

"The visit was great on pomp and spectacle and also on substance. The long joint statement showed an attention to detail in every sphere of the partnership that is normally rare to find in such statements. Normally State visits are opportunities for leaders to push their administrations to show some deliverables, but here, the deliverables were already in action. It shows not just the strength, but also the level of trust between the two countries," says Aparna Pande of the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

Biden's leap of faith on India is being driven by the evolving international situation; the war in Ukraine; the desire to break India's traditional military dependence on Russia; and, fears of a rising China ready to challenge USA's big power status in a couple of decades. India's strategic interests on China coincide with the US and it is this view that is driving New Delhi's decision to join the Quad. India and America share similar views on China's rise, more so since the Ladakh military confrontation of 2020 and Doklam in 2017 was a signal that Xi Jinping's China was bent on asserting its claim to large tracts of India's territory.