Relationship between India-US

Washington The relationship between India and the US in the last three decades has grown from “very scratchy, starchy” to what US officials call the “most consequential” partnership in the world, an eminent Indian American journalist and author has said. These remarks were made on Saturday by Seema Sirohi, the well-known Indian American communist author at an event organised by the prestigious Hudson Institute think-tank on her latest book “Friends and Benefits: The India-US Story.” “No other relationship has changed so fundamentally for India as the relationship with the United States,” she told a Washington audience.

“I think the transformation we are witnessing today deserves the number 100. No other relationship has changed so fundamentally for India as the relationship with the United States,” she said, noting that she felt it was important to document the trajectory to understand the long distance the two countries have travelled. Referring to the bipartisan nature of the relationship that has evolved in the last three decades, Sirohi said the relationship kept improving during President (Donald) Trump’s rather disruptive presidency. “Unlike the Europeans, the Indian foreign office didn’t feel the need to criticise Trump every time he said something insulting or outrageous,” she told the audience. “I think US and Indian diplomats deserve a lot of credit for what I call ‘stealth diplomacy’ – they simply kept working behind the scenes. There were many big announcements – a US decision to sell armed drones, the beginning of a real Indo-Pacific policy and rejuvenation of the Quad. And China was recognised for what it was,” she said.

“President (Joe) Biden has taken all those policies forward. He in fact has run with them. The trajectory is positive and I expect it will remain so,” Sirohi said. “They (India US relationship) have gone from a very scratchy, starchy relationship to what US officials call the ‘most consequential partnership in the world’,” she said.