Democracy, China, Technology, and more: What underlies the India-US embrace

Days before this meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had met China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Blinken said the two countries agreed to “stabilise” ties that had deteriorated badly, but his request for “better communications between their militaries” fell on deaf ears. China was not prepared to resume military-to-military contacts, something the US considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan, Blinken said after meeting Xi.

Democracy & ‘autocracy’

The two high-level visits this week present a stark contrast — while strategic trust between India and the US has been growing and momentum in ties has been built over the years, the strategic distrust in the US-China relationship, along with associated potential risks, has been open and visible.

With Modi by his side, Biden told a press conference at the White House on Thursday: “One of the fundamental reasons that I believe the US-China relationship is not in the space it is with the US- Indian relationship is that there’s overwhelming respect for each other because we’re both democracies. And it’s a common democratic character of both our countries…our people, our diversity, our culture, our open, tolerant, robust debate.”

While Washington has been framing the distinction in terms of a contrast between “autocracies” and “democracies”, New Delhi has so far been hesitant to publicly articulate this formulation.

In his address to the joint sitting of both chambers of the US Congress, Modi said that “democracy is one of our sacred and shared values”, and “in the evolution of the democratic spirit, India is the Mother of Democracy”.

The US “is the oldest and India the largest democracy”, and “our partnership augurs well for the future of democracy”, he said. “Together, we shall give a better future to the world, and a better world to the future.”

The US force multiplier

As Modi told the US President that his personal commitment to India was inspiring New Delhi to take many “bold and ambitious” measures, the Prime Minister was looking at growth and development in this country.

New Delhi understands in very clear and unambiguous terms that it needs the US and the West for its growth and development. Throughout contemporary history, almost every major power has risen with help from the US—Japan, Germany, and other countries of Western Europe are good examples.

Now that India’s economy is on an upward trajectory, it has made the strategic decision to go along with the US to benefit from the economic, technological, and military prowess of the world’s richest and most powerful nation.

China on India’s mind

What has also given strategic clarity to New Delhi is China’s aggressive behaviour along the border. Over the last three years, as the Chinese have mobilised 50,000 troops on the Line of Actual Control, India has had to mirror the deployment. India is clear in its mind that it needs the help of the US to counter the threat from China.

The war in Ukraine has exposed the vulnerability of Russia and served up a few reality checks to India. Russia’s “no-limits” friendship with China is a cause for concern in New Delhi. Second, almost a year and a half of fighting has called the robustness of the Russian defence system into question. Third, the Western sanctions have debilitated Moscow’s ability to innovate and produce cutting-edge technology. India, with an overwhelming dependence on defence supplies from Russia, has reasons to worry.

In his speech to Congress, Modi said: “The dark clouds of coercion and confrontation are casting their shadow in the Indo-Pacific. The stability of the region has become one of the central concerns of our partnership.”

Thanks to the strategic impatience of President Xi, who has shed Deng Xiaoping’s “hide your strength and bide your time” dictum, Washington and New Delhi have come closer than ever before. That has manifested itself in collaboration in almost every strategic sector from space to defence to critical tech to semiconductors.

On both sides, win-win

India has an intrinsic advantage in its dealings with the US: the influential Indian-American community is well-established in the US establishment — from CEOs to scientists to political operatives to officials — and provides unparalleled access to the levers of power in the American system. This opens doors for India more easily than is possible for some other countries.

The Indian need for capital and technology can be met by the strategic embrace of the two countries, and the Indian leadership has recognised this over the last two decades or so.

But Modi also made it clear that the US needs India as much as India needs the US — making the case to the political class of Washington DC that it was in their interest to partner as well.

For context, he described the scale of the opportunities that India offers: “We have given nearly forty million homes to provide shelter to over hundred and fifty million people. That is nearly six times the population of Australia! We run a national health insurance programme that ensures free medical treatment for about five hundred million people. That is greater than the population of South America! We took banking to the unbanked with the world’s largest financial inclusion drive. Nearly five hundred million people benefited. This is close to the population of North America! We have worked on building Digital India. Today, there are more than eight hundred and fifty million smartphones and internet users in the country. This is more than the population of Europe!”

As the two sides get to work to translate the 58-paragraph ambitious Joint Statement into reality, both President Biden and Prime Minister Modi would be aware that the road ahead is full of challenges. It is perhaps apt that Biden gifted Modi a book of poems by Robert Frost, whose ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ contains the immortal lines: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”