Two weeks after US President Barack Obama’s successful visit to India and his tour de force performance in Parliament, most commentators consider Indo-US relations to be on the right track. Nonetheless there is a perception in India that the “soft” and “feel-good” aspects of the relationship mask a lack of substantive progress on the hard strategic, political and security issues.
This goes back to Mr Obama’s first year in office: when he made it a point to ensure that the first state guest of his administration was our Prime Minister, some Indian commentators scoffed at what they saw as empty symbolism — “we get the state dinners, while Pakistan gets $5 billion worth of weapons”.
So the questions remain: How understanding is the US of India’s security concerns, especially vis-à-vis Pakistan? Does Washington welcome India’s desire for recognition of its enhanced status in the world, such as through a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council? Mr Obama answered the second question to our satisfaction, though there is still a while to go before the US endorsement translates into concrete results for India. On the first, though, the response appears to be mixed.
There has been some American appreciation for India’s role in Afghanistan but greater receptivity to Pakistani objections than New Delhi considers reasonable. We remain seriously concerned about the possibility of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan that implicitly leaves the country to the mercies of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has been known to foment and guide terrorist actions against India. Cooperation between India and the US on counter-terrorism has improved after 26/11, but the two countries have not gone much beyond information sharing (though the access somewhat belatedly granted to the Pakistani-American terrorist enabler David Coleman Headley helped overcome misgivings about the depth of this cooperation). This is one area where real teeth could be added, not least to reassure us that the US’ understandable desire to cut its losses in “Af-Pak” would not leave our country more vulnerable to the depredations of those who stand to gain from an American departure.
India has, by our own non-aligned standards, taken greater steps towards embracing Washington’s security views than many would have imagined possible just a decade ago. Military cooperation between India and the US has increased substantially, and has featured both joint exercises and a significant number of high-level visits, most recently that of defence minister A.K. Antony to Washington. There is scope for further enhanced collaboration, not merely defence-oriented, but also on disaster relief, anti-piracy and broader humanitarian and maritime security issues. These are all win-win possibilities.
On the Security Council, the US has finally explicitly endorsed India’s claims to a permanent seat. At the same time, there are many in Washington who feel that India is yet to earn its place by “constructive” (read pro-American) positions on key international issues like Burma, Iran, Iraq or North Korea, and who fear that New Delhi’s prickly independence could make it an irritant on the Council, rather than a blessing. Indians retort that a permanent seat should merely reflect the reality of our country’s importance in the world and not be seen as a reward for good behaviour. But we must be aware that our stands on such issues will be closely watched in Washington, and could affect the degree of enthusiasm with which they pursue Council reform.
Globally, India is looking for a more inclusive multilateralism, and would not accept, as some foreign observers have suggested, a G2 condominium of America and China. There is a consensus in our country that India should seek to continue to contribute to international security and prosperity, to a well-ordered and equitable world, and to democratic, sustainable development for all. This means that, in the wake of the global economic crisis, we must work to redistribute power in the international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, as well as in the political organs of global governance such as the UNSC. This is an area where New Delhi expects greater understanding from Washington.
But India must beware of seeing the Obama visit in terms of a checklist of Indian expectations alone. The fact is that Washington has reason to feel that New Delhi has not done enough to define its own sense of its role as an emerging great power, and consequently has no settled vision of what it wants from a strategic partnership with the US. India is gradually moving from its traditional obsession with preserving its own strategic autonomy in the face of external pressure, to a broader acceptance of its own responsibilities in shaping the world in which it wants to thrive. But there is not yet a fully-fledged consensus on what that entails and how far it permits the two countries to flesh out the meaning of the expression “natural allies” first used by both governments in the current decade.
Part of the success of the Obama visit will lie in how effectively the two countries manage the differences that inevitably will arise between them. Diplomats like to pretend that there are no difficulties or misunderstandings, when, in fact, several have arisen in the recent past. An illustrative list would include different priorities on terrorism and mismatched threat perceptions, incompatible views on Pakistan as a credible partner for peace, and continued disagreements on aspects of trade relations, none more evident than in their duelling positions on the Doha Round. There are also issues of style — American insensitivity and Indian preachiness have tended to rub each other the wrong way. But on geopolitical fundamentals, there is no real clash of interests. On no issue of vital national interest to either country is the other arraigned on the wrong side.
And yet the fundamental driver for long-term relations between the US and India remains the importance of America — the nation, not just the government — as a partner in India’s own remaking. Our basic task in international affairs is to wield a foreign policy that enables and facilitates our own domestic transformation. Our relationship with the US is part of an effort to make that possible through our engagement with the world, while safeguarding our own national values (of pluralism, democracy, social justice and secularism). The India-US partnership must work for a global environment that is supportive of these internal priorities, and that facilitates our energy security, our food security and our environmental future. That is why President Obama’s visit is likely to mark a hugely important step in building an enduring edifice of cooperation.

Shashi Tharoor is a member of Parliament from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram constituency