Kurt M. Campbell and Jake Sullivan
Tariffs, Russian oil purchases, and renewed tensions regarding Pakistan have caused a rapid and regrettable downturn in the U.S.-Indian relationship, replete with public insults and recriminations. As Washington and New Delhi evaluate the state of things, it is prudent to remember why India has emerged over the last generation as one of the United States’ most important global partners. It is also time to consider how to fortify a relationship that has been one of the brightest spots of bipartisan support in a divided Washington where concerted international purpose has been in short supply.
U.S. policymakers have long seen promise in India’s status as the world’s largest democracy as well as opportunity in its economic and technological dynamism and its growing global leadership role. More recently, India’s desire to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific has led to a strategic alignment with the United States that has effectively disincentivized reckless Chinese adventurism.
This common purpose must not be taken for granted. Until this most recent dustup, multiple U.S. presidents have pushed forward specific initiatives to advance the relationship and convert a general sense of promise into something deeper and sustained, including President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s landmark U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement and President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cooperation in critical fields such as AI, biotechnology, and aerospace.
The relationship, however, has remained vulnerable to misunderstandings, missteps, and missed opportunities because of lingering distrust and misaligned expectations. This is partly because U.S.-Indian ties do not fit neatly into the boxes that the United States has historically used to define its most consequential bilateral relationships. In the Cold War and post–Cold War eras, U.S. foreign policy made a distinction between alliances and partnerships. Alliances involved formal treaty commitments built on the foundation of a mutual defense guarantee. Partnerships were for essentially all other countries that worked with Washington—and India fell into that category.
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