India – United States relations

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Indo-American relations refers to the bilateral relations between the Republic of India and the United States of America. Despite being one of the pioneers and founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, India developed a closer relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. India's strategic and military relations with Moscow and strong socialist policies had an adverse impact on its relations with the United States.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, India began to review its foreign policy in a non-polar world following which, it took steps to develop closer ties with the European Union and the United States. Today, India and the U.S. share an extensive cultural, strategic, military and economic relationship.[ During the tenure of the Clinton and Bush administration, relations between India and the United States blossomed primarily over common concerns regarding growing Islamic extremism, energy security and climate change.

According to some foreign policy experts, there was a slight downturn in India-U.S. relations following the election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States in 2009. This was primarily due to Obama administration's desire to increase relations with China, and Barack Obama's protectionist views on dealing with the economic crisis. However, the leaders of the two countries have repeatedly dismissed these concerns.


History

Swami Vivekananda in Chicago, 1893.

The historic relationship between India and the United States was very strong. One event is the visit of Swami Vivekananda who introduced Yoga and Vedanta to America. Vivekananda was the first known Hindu Sage to come to the West, where he introduced Eastern thought at the World's Parliament of Religions, in connection with the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893].


Here, his first lecture, which started with this line "Sisters and Brothers of America," made the audience clap for two minutes just to the address, for prior to this seminal speech, the audience was always used to this opening address: "Ladies and Gentlemen". It was this speech that catapulted him to fame by his wide audiences in Chicago and then later everywhere else in America, including far-flung places such as Memphis, Boston, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. After Indian independence until the end of the cold war, the relationship between the two nations has often been thorny. Dwight Eisenhower was the first U.S. President to visit India in 1959. He was so supportive of India that the New York Times remarked "It did not seem to matter much whether Nehru had actually requested or been given a guarantee that the U.S. would help India to meet further Chinese communist aggression. What mattered was the obvious strengthening of Indian-American friendship to a point where no such guarantee was necessary."

During John F. Kennedy's period as President, he saw India as a strategic partner against the rise of communist China. He said "Chinese Communists have been moving ahead the last 10 years. India has been making some progress, but if India does not succeed with her 450 million people, if she can't make freedom work, then people around the world are going to determine, particularly in the underdeveloped world, that the only way they can develop their resources is through the Communist system."

The administration was disturbed by what they considered "blatant Chinese communist aggression against India" after the Sino-Indian War. In a May 1963 National Security Council meeting, contingency planning on the part of the United States in the event of another Chinese attack on India was discussed. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor advised the president to use nuclear weapons should the Americans intervene in such a situation. Kennedy insisted that Washington defend India as it would any ally, saying, "We should defend India, and therefore we will defend India". Kennedy's ambassador was the noted Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith. While in India, he also helped establish one of the first computer science departments, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. As an economist he also presided over the largest (to that date) US-Foreign Aid program to any country. From 1961 to 1963 there was a promise to help set up a large steel mill in Bokaro that was withdrawn by the U.S.


The 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani wars did not help their relations. During the Cold War, the U.S. asked for Pakistan's help because India was seen to lean towards the Soviet Union. Later, when India would not agree to support the anti-Soviet operation in Afghanistan, it was left with few allies. Not until 1997 was there any effort to improve relations with the United States. Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. Soon after Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Indian Prime Minister, he authorized a nuclear weapons test in Pokhran The United States strongly condemned the test and promised sanctions, and voted in favor of a United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning it. United States President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on India.


These consisted of the cutting off of all military and economic aid, freezing loans by American banks to state-owned Indian companies and loans to the Indian government for all except food purchases, prohibiting American technology and uranium exports, and required the United States to oppose all loan requests by India to international lending agencies. However, these sanctions proved ineffective.

India was experiencing a strong economic rise, and its trade with the United States only constituted a small portion of its GDP. Only Japan joined the U.S. in imposing direct sanctions, while most other nations continued to trade with India. The sanctions were soon lifted. The Clinton administration and Vajpayee exchanged representatives to help build relations. In March 2000, President Bill Clinton visited India. He had bilateral and economic discussions with Prime Minister Vajpayee.


Over the course of improved diplomatic relations with the Bush administration, India has agreed to allow close international monitoring of its nuclear weapons development while refusing to give up its current nuclear arsenal. India and the U.S. have also greatly enhanced their economic ties. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush collaborated with India to control and police the extremely crucial Indian Ocean sea-lanes from the Suez to Singapore.

The December 2004 tsunami saw the U.S. and Indian navies cooperating in search and rescue operations and reconstruction of affected areas. An Open Skies Agreement was made in April 2005. This helped enhance trade, tourism, and business by the increased number of flights.


Air India purchased 68 U.S. Boeing aircraft, which cost $8 billion. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made recent visits to India as well. After Hurricane Katrina, India donated $5 million to the American Red Cross and sent two plane loads of relief supplies and materials to help. And on 1 March 2006, President Bush made another diplomatic visit to expand relations between India and the United States.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 by deivam P Mohanraj · 0