Modi and Obama chalk out new path

This Republic Day — what with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi as the chief guest — is likely to be noted by future historians to be the first open effort on the part of an Indian government to announce that its outlook on questions outside the domestic sphere is likely to be progressively aligned with the US bandwidth.

If the logic of this is realised, India would be brought closer to being a “strategic ally” of the United States, rather than just remain a “strategic partner”, or even a “global strategic partner” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Obama have referred to. For the sake of clarity, the West Europeans (Nato), Japan, Israel or Saudi Arabia have been America’s “allies”, which is rather more than “partner”.

It is now obvious that Mr Modi has worked for a qualitative change of such an order from the time he first met Mr Obama last September in Washington, although the formal intimation of close global policy coordination between the two sides came through the joint statement issued during Mr Obama’s summit in New Delhi with the Indian leader on Sunday.

It was this developing broad understanding of the past months that has produced the “breakthrough” in the civil nuclear question. The US President has, thus, agreed to use his executive powers not to any more insist on America tracking the use of any part it supplies for our civil reactors.

The US Supreme Court or Congress could of course strike this down when the present President goes out in two years. But they won’t if US N-reactor companies can set up shop here by then and business opportunities soar. This can happen if the crucial question of suppliers’ liability in the event of an accident can be sorted out to the satisfaction of those companies. With the emergence of the Modi-Obama dynamic, the US government left the US companies to take the call once India agreed to set up an “insurance pool”. These matters can be contentious in India and we could see some debate on whether secret “assurances” have been given.

The lengthy joint statement touches on parameters across the spectrum. It speaks of the convening of an “India-US Political Military Dialogue” last December. There is emphasis on a “joint vision” on the Asia-Pacific through which India’s “Act East” policy of the Modi era would click with the US “re-balance to Asia”. Joint defence production is contemplated. Other highlights are “triangular assistance” with India and the US jointly offering help to developing countries, the two campaigning together internationally on non-proliferation and climate issues, and the criticism of North Korea on the nuclear issue. Such a gamut marks out a wholly new path, not just “elevated” ties.