Modi’s US visit: High on rhetoric, low on substance

Last week, Narendra Modi’s three day visit to the US had generated huge euphoria in India, given the fact that he became the sixth Indian Prime Minister to address a joint session of US Congress, it was his fourth visit to US and seventh meeting with President Obama in the first two years of his government. Now, when Prime Minister Modi is back, it is necessary and timely to assess the extent to which his recent visit succeeded in transforming the India-US bilateral ties.

Since Prime Minister Modi came to power in May 2014, he has invested huge political capital to strengthen relations with the US, setting aside his personal differences with that country in the past. This became evident in January 2015 when the US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region issued on the President Obama’s visit mentioned, for the first time, US administration's affirmation to safeguard maritime security and ensuring the freedom of navigation and over flight throughout the region, especially in the South China Sea. This, in turn, underscored two important facts: the present NDA government appeared willing to check China’s assertive behaviour and second, in doing so, it wished to forge strong security ties with the US.

India’s agreement in principle to sign defense agreements such as the Logistic Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMA), the Communication and Information Security Memorandum (CISMOA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) is the clear reflect of India’s such desires. For the US, one of the main reasons since the time of the George W. Bush Administration has been to project India as a country which can balance China. The US government has infact been asking India to sign the above-mentioned agreements to expand defense cooperation since a long time. Thus, the Modi government’s willingness to shift India’s stand on these two issues has been a welcoming development for the Obama administration.

Also read: Modi in the US: A performer without pants 

It was preciously one of the reasons that addressing a joint sitting of the US Congress Mr. Modi said the constraints of past are behind us and foundations of the future firmly in place. In turn, he wanted to covey to the US lawmakers that India is very much interested in expanding horizons of cooperation with the US. Prime Minister Modi commended the US lawmakers for sending a clear message to “those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains,” without naming Pakistan.

While we may feel happy about the fact that Modi condemned Pakistan before the US congress, although in oblique reference, for becoming a breeding ground for terrorist activities, the fact remains that the US and India continue to differ on how to tackle the menace of terrorism in South Asia. While Pakistan remains to be a major part of the US’ counter-terrorism policy to deal with terrorist organisations like Taliban and others; India feels that the global war on terrorism cannot succeed without keeping a check on Pakistan. Certainly, it is not clear whether Modi’s visit has reduced the gap between the two countries in this regard.

Prime Minister Modi’s telling US lawmakers about India’s deep engagement in reconstruction of Afghanistan and his appeal to not distinguish between bad and good Taliban underscores the fact that New Delhi and Washington are not on the same page, as far as peace, security and development in Afghanistan is concerned. In turn, this puts a big question mark over the future of security engagement between the two countries.

At a time when China is asserting its position in the South China sea, Prime Minister Modi’s telling the US lawmakers that stronger India is in the US’ strategic interests is a new development in the bilateral ties. In fact, Prime Minister Modi’s saying that a stronger US-India partnership can boost peace and prosperity from Asia to Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, is a bold statement. This fact is further reinforced by the statement issued under the title of the United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21^st Century.

Also read: Modi outdid even Vajpayee. But is America impressed? 

Six agreements were signed between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama including the establishment of new DTTI working groups to include agreed items covering naval systems, air systems, and other weapons systems, the formulation of a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 US -India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region and the conclusion of a technical arrangement for sharing of maritime “White Shipping” information.

However, one question that should haunt the Modi government is what India would gain by extending its cooperation to the US in its efforts to contain China? We have not seen and do not hope that the US would build pressure upon China to ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring terrorism against India from its soil. In fact, the US pursues the policy of containment and accommodation towards China. Thus, while Washington does not wish to directly confront China, impacting its economic interests, it is focused on promoting other countries to assert against Beijing. Unfortunately, the Modi government is falling in the US trap.

Despite the Modi government’s hard push for operationalisation of the India-US civil nuclear agreement, no monumental development could take place during the visit, except the mention of the start of preparatory work on site in India for six 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse in Andhra Pradesh in the joint statement. The fact that some concrete shape of cooperation between the two countries in this nuclear filed would be visible only after June 2017 is more disturbing.

Climate change and clean energy also got special attention of the two heads of state. Sensing the gravity of issues related to climate change, the two leaders expressed their commitment to work together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement, to address the urgent threats posed by climate change. The United States also called on NSG participating governments to support India’s application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month. But, this is not the first time when the US said so.

In fact, in 2010 President Obama had expressed the US’ commitment to support India’s candidature for the NSG and other missile regimes during his visit to India. Since then, the two countries have been working on this issue.

The joint statement remains silent on differences between India and the US on the visa issue. Early this year the US has notified an additional fee up to $4,000 for certain categories of the popular H1B and L1 visas, which has huge impact of Indian IT firms. Modi smartly pointed out that US lawmakers have not claimed intellectual property rights on Yoga, which is practiced by 30 million people in the US. No development was observed on intellectual property right disputes that the two countries are facing in fields ranging from paddy to medicine.

Prime Minister Modi’s visit, therefore, has produced mixed outcomes. It has helped maintain the momentum, which is very crucial for bilateral relations to move to the next level. The visit could not produce a big idea which can be seen as the silver lining in the relationship between New Delhi and Washington. As there would the change of administration in the US in a few months time, one may hope that the two countries would come up with new ways to accelerate the pace of the bilateral ties.