Growing India-US Strategic Cooperation: An Analysis

Abstract

India and the US have seen a growth in convergence of their interest in the last one and a half decade. However, a new shift in the relations took place soon after Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minster of India in 2016. The US-India bilateral relationship, over the past decade, has not only strengthened in the fields of defence, and counter-terrorism cooperation, but India became a prominent partner of the US in the fields of cyber and homeland security. The current paper discusses the emergence of the US strategic partnership with India, which has proved to be a bipartisan success. The paper, primarily, focuses on the growing common strategic convergence between the US and India. Furthermore, the paper also presents a brief analysis of the potential growth of the US-Indian strategic partnership under the Trump administration and explores its potentials as a strategic liability or a partnership for India. In addition, it explores the growing US reliance on India in the wake of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC); and for India to act as a global partner and an ally at different strategic levels.