The most recent president of the United States of America (hereafter US) has little in common with his predecessor Donald Trump, but could the relationship between the US and India be the connecting point between these two presidents? Is Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, willing to negotiate with Biden? What are the new US administration's plans for its relationship with India?
The friendship of these two countries was embodied on 27 October 2020, still with Donald Trump in power, through the signing of a military treaty that allowed the armed forces of both nations to have access to cartographic information collected by their respective satellites. This agreement was an attempt by the countries to join forces against China, because: on the one hand, we have India in a long-standing dispute with Xi Jinping, Head of State of the People's Republic of China, over the Himalayan border; and on the other hand, we have Trump in an open trade war with Beijing. So, both countries have chosen to build a common front against the same enemy - China.
On the same day of Joe Biden's inauguration, the U.S. Department of State's document on the future of the relationship between the USA and India and the guidelines that the new president will follow in the next four years, defining the relationship cooperation, not only political but also cultural and economic. Overall, we can expect international cooperation with an emphasis on promoting global security and economic stability. The United States of America emphasizes India's emergence as a superpower in order to reassure stable Indo-Pacific relations, as there is still some tension between the US and the Asian continent. We can then expect bilateral cooperation, with flexible multilateral interests.
However, to what extent can we consider this promotion of India by the US, a form of control of a future Asian superpower? On the part of former President Donald Trump, we had this desire for control expressed in the 2017 Defense and National Strategy report. Regarding Biden, even if we believe in his good intentions as far as international diplomacy is concerned, we should not ignore that in politics there are always ulterior motives and, therefore, these aids have at their genesis the intention of controlling India through financing or even by signing bilateral agreements, so that the US gains some kind of supremacy not only on the Asian continent but also (from an international perspective) show China that it has allies in Asia. Perhaps Biden is not that different from Trump but can hide his intentions in a more diplomatic way, also bringing some benefits to India (like economic and educational agreements).
At the level of international cooperation for democratic well-being, we can expect Biden, together with Modi, to focus on ensuring "democratic resilience in the Indo-Pacific region, and the resilience of the rules-based international order". That is, in terms of economic strategy it is advantageous for both powers to have democracy in Asian countries since democracies (mainly liberal democracies) are more open to negotiating international trade. We can deduce that the logic of thought adopted will be that the growth of India (with the help of the USA) will lead Asian countries to depend on it (consequently, gradually ceasing to depend on China), and thus begin to depend on the USA - in this case the international market between Asia and the West could be controlled by both powers.
Another point to highlight, and quite important for Biden, is the existence of international diplomacy, which means, he has the need for all political games to follow the rules and laws established in the international context, so as not only to ensure order among the powers but also to preserve the transparency of treaties, always considering the international agenda and the needs of each country.
Education is also a major connecting element between the US and India. In the year 2019, over 200,000 Indian students studied in American universities. However, in 2020, due to the global pandemic, this number decreased. Thus, the Biden administration aims to strengthen educational cooperation with India by creating funds or direct funding for research in areas of mutual interest; encouraging the exchange between the two countries of researchers and students, and creating jobs in specialized areas.
In theoretical terms, Biden (and oddly enough also Trump), as far as his relationship with India is concerned, seems for the time being to follow a Liberal Approach (Walt, 1998, p.32). That is, he believes that through international cooperation, such as signing international treaties or agreements, it is possible to maintain a stable bilateral relationship between the US and India... and perhaps establish a lasting relationship between the two countries.
We can conclude that the new US administration (which will be the fourth administration to pursue this cooperation) is committed to strengthening relations with India and that in the long term these relations may bring benefits for Biden such as US supremacy on the Asian continent, presenting itself as a more or less direct opposition to Xi Jinping's China; a better economic development with possible future transatlantic deals (for both sides) - since India is the Asian bridge that the US always wanted to reach, and the US is the bridge to the West and new opportunities that India never had access to. In this way, I believe that this cooperation will continue to have a significant impact, both in the field of education, economy, technology, health, and trade.
Additional references:
Walt, Stephen M. (1998). International Relations: One World, Many Theories. Foreign Policy, No. 110, Special Edition: Frontiers of Knowledge.
Cover image source: Getty Images/AFP/R.Schmidt
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