“When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.” —Ramakrishna
What’s going on between the US and India? Is romance waning or was it never there to begin with? The above quote accurately describes the West’s approach to India. She is becoming something in which the West wants to participate.
New Delhi is too smart to be an ally and certainly not a proxy of the West. Indians read and remember their history–once was enough.
On the surface the US champions India as a strategic partner–a foil–against its neighbor China. But in the face of Donald Trump’s “Realpolitik” the US has pivoted — threatening New Delhi with sanctions after the Chabahar Port agreement was signed with America’s Middle Eastern nemesis, Iran. As reported in The Hindu.com, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, responding to the U.S. government’s remarks about the “potential risk” of sanctions to companies working on the India-Iran joint venture:
“India will ‘work at’ explaining that the Chabahar port is in the region’s interest.”
But a rift is definitely exposed signaling potential geopolitical issues between Washington and New Delhi.
As part of the Trump plan to promote India as a strategic asset (ally would not be appropriate here), it extended a well-advertised gesture to her as recently as 2017. As reported by The Diplomat in October of 2021, the US designated an entire region as “the Indo-Pacific.” The effort was an attempt to promote New Delhi as an important partner in the US’s continuing struggle to contain China’s regional and global economic and political assent.
As part of the honor, Foreign Relations Magazine reported that New Delhi would be integrated into an ostensibly important group in the Pacific Rim called “The Quad,” with the US, Australia and Japan. Recognition was being accorded India for its success at instituting democratic government and its enormous economic and productive potential.
New Delhi itself was keen to take advantage of these important accolades to enable its own economic and political ascendency as a power to command respect. As the savvy politician he is, Prime Minister Narendra Modi viewed the moment as an opportunity for India, as the West’s relationship with China has become more contentious.
But just when you think the romance has “legs” your partner looks at someone else and you are left feeling a bit estranged if not altogether abandoned. What was optimism about a future relationship becomes uncertainty, even in the face of growing Western economic interests in New Delhi.
India’s role in US objectives seems now debatable if not unlikely. In May of 2024, Nikki Asia wrote, “Philippines first, India later, as U.S. prioritizes ‘Squad’ allies.” There appears to be a new group formed called “The Squad” led by pro-US Philippine president Ferdinand Macros Jr. It seems India has been displaced (subordinated is a better word for it) by the Philippines. It seems the US believes Manilla will do more to cooperate on anti-China objectives than New Delhi, like provocative rhetoric and joint military exercises. Thus, from relative rapprochement with the West on China issues, India appears to be falling into relative estrangement. What happened?
First, India has an independent and strictly self-interested foreign policy. It might be willing to lean towards the US for its own gain, but that does not make it an “ally.” The US can subdue many countries into following its foreign policy objectives, such as Britain, the Baltic states, or the Philippines, but India only joins in if it sees fit. Talk of New Delhi being part of an ideological cause for “democracy and freedom” is nonsense, and its leadership has never alluded to such cooperation in this way, despite its grievances with China. India has no commitment to US unipolarity like Britain or Australia would support, and instead seeks to rise as a power in its own right in a multipolar world – it is the “I” in BRICS.
In pursuing their own course, India actively takes positions of disagreement with the US and its allies when it is necessary to do so. Over the past several years, these points of disagreement between New Delhi and the West have surged due to unavoidable changes in the international environment, which have increased geopolitical conflict. India has had an interest in balancing the rise of China, because it recognizes that it can benefit economically from supply-chain and manufacturing realignments. However, when US-led foreign policy begins to attempt to crush all multipolarity for its own benefit, this becomes a strategic problem for India and creates a divergence in the two nations’ objectives. One particular example is the war in Ukraine.
The US has sought to use the war as a means to attempt to economically and militarily cripple Russia, as nonsensical as this has been proven, thus seeking to eliminate one of India’s key strategic partners in the field of energy and armaments. Why would India comply with the US-led sanctions regime? It chose not to relent to Washington’s demands, and even pursued currency changes to avoid it. Ukrainian victory would strategically weaken and isolate India, forcing it into a Western dependency scenario. Worse still, the war has ushered in an improvement in US relations with Pakistan following the removal and jailing of anti-US Prime Minister Imran Khan. The US, of course, tried to ignore and reconcile these differences for quite a while, even as it leaned on India’s shoulder. But then a second issue emerged in this newly fraught geopolitical environment: the Israel-Gaza war.
Many Indians support Israel. India Today voiced the issue well in an October article 2023 article, “India sends aid to Gaza: Has India struck the right balance?” However, New Delhi also frames itself as a champion of the Global South, and recognizes that it would lose credibility in toeing the Western line of unconditional support for Israel’s campaign of genocidal destruction. More importantly though, the situation has also entailed increased Western conflict with Iran, which is another strategic partner of India, a country with which it has historical and cultural ties, and is another critical energy supplier. As US tensions with Iran grow, India will not follow suit on Western pressure.
Then finally, a supreme insult, Associated Press reported in May of last year, “President Joe Biden calls Japan and India ‘xenophobic’ nations that do not welcome immigrants.” This Biden gaffe ruffled feathers in India, in general and with Prime Minister Modi specifically, with his public chiding of the nation. All of this has had the effect of recalibrating India’s balancing act on its foreign policy and further distancing itself from the US.
F. Andrew Wolf, Jr.is director of The Fulcrum Institute, a new organization of current and former scholars, which engages in research and commentary, focusing on political and cultural issues on both sides of the Atlantic. After service in the USAF (Lt.Col.-Intel) Dr. Wolf obtained a PhD-philosophy (Wales), MA-theology (Univ. S. Africa), MTh-philosophical theology (TCU-Brite Div.). He taught philosophy, humanities and theology in the US and S. Africa before retiring from university.
