India Emerges as World’s Biggest Geopolitical Beneficiary

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the United States . He is the third foreign head of state invited to the United States for a “state visit” by the Biden administration since its establishment more than two years ago.

The first leader Biden invited to pay a state visit to the United States was French President Macron. In order to repair the relationship between the two countries, Biden entertained Macron with the etiquette of a state visit, which has a strong sense of appeasement.

In other words, if the “AUKUS” incident had not occurred, the French president may not have become the first foreign leader to pay a state visit to the United States during the Biden administration’s term.

The geopolitical partner that Washington really values, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yue, made a state visit to the United States after Macron. During his visit, the US and South Korea signed the “Washington Declaration”, centering on common geopolitical challenges, the relationship between the two countries was upgraded, and it opened the way for the formation of the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral mechanism.

As the third head of state to visit the United States as a state guest, Modi will attend Biden’s private dinner in Washington, hold talks with the latter at the White House, enjoy his state banquet, and face senators and representatives at a joint session of the U.S. Congress Giving a speech highlighted the high-level development of US-India relations.

Delivering another speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress earned Modi the honor of doing the same event twice.

Modi, who received a full set of state visit specifications from the Biden administration, said in an interview before the visit that New Delhi and Washington trust each other to an unprecedented level.

Many people may find it puzzling that in the past 16 months, the Modi government has not condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Instead, it has continued to maintain and strengthen economic and trade ties with it, especially expanding its energy purchases from Russia on a large scale.

But Modi believes that criticism of India’s attitude is not common in the United States. The whole world is aware of India’s position. The first initiative is peace, and the world has absolute confidence in India.

Modi’s words may be more “diplomatic rhetoric”. More precisely, out of diplomatic and strategic considerations, the Biden administration decided to “open the net” to India, as long as it does not provide direct support for Russia’s war, it will turn a blind eye Close your eyes.

A statement from Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, may explain this. “We will make our point,” he said of India’s constraints on journalism and religion, but “ultimately, India’s political and democratic institutions will be decided by India itself, not by the United States.”

This means that the Biden administration implements a realistic foreign policy. Geopolitics and major power competition factors have surpassed human rights and value diplomacy. The United States is determined to put aside its differences with India on the war in Ukraine and religious and news issues, and is committed to deepening its strategy with India relations without preaching to India on “human rights issues”.

Sullivan said that the United States and India have made tangible progress in all aspects, and the outside world will see the combination of in-depth strategic discussions and actual progress between the two sides. They reflect the fact that the US-India relationship will be “one of the defining partnerships of our time”.

In the past few years, especially since Biden entered the White House, the U.S. government has used various practical interests to guide India to strengthen its relationship with the United States. This effort is reaping results, making India the biggest beneficiary of the United States’ great power competition and geopolitical strategy (There may not even be one of them), given India’s unique geography – a major power in the South Asia-Indian Ocean region, the backbone of the Indo-Pacific west wing, and its sheer size.

Important factors that have strong appeal to India include:

The United States is willing to carry out defense and military technology cooperation with India beyond the level of allies to accelerate India’s military modernization process. This is undoubtedly crucial for India, which still has many shortcomings in military technology.

It is believed that Modi’s visit will finalize the purchase of 31 MQ-9B “Sea Guardian” drones for US$3 billion, and will sign cooperation agreements with the United States in the fields of defense cooperation, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.

The United States encourages and supports the development of trade partnerships with India as one of the alternative destinations for shifting key supply chains from rival countries. US and Indian leaders will focus on discussing investment in India.

India has benefited greatly from the U.S. policy in recent years. India’s population advantages and growing market potential offer broad prospects for US-India trade and supply chain cooperation. With the support of the United States, India is expected to become a new economic superpower in the Asia-Pacific region.

During Modi’s visit to the United States, he made a special trip to meet with Tesla’s President Musk in New York, discussing Tesla’s “major investment” in India and bringing the SpaceX Starlink network, which has shown prowess on the Ukrainian battlefield, to India. have a discussion.

Successive Indian governments in recent times have aspired to the country’s role as a global power. Modi believes that it is time for India to play a more important role on the world stage, “India deserves a higher, deeper and broader image and role”, especially as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Gaining Washington’s support on this issue is of great importance. The United States is adapting to the reality of the new era of major power competition, promoting the transformation of the world system, and building a new world order and rules. There is a broad room for imagination for US-India cooperation around the reform of the United Nations or the new world order.

Washington intends to release a message: Modi’s visit to the United States will be a turning point and a “milestone” in US-India relations.

The Biden administration has eliminated all interference, including its attitude towards the Ukraine war and obstacles to human rights issues in India, and is committed to promoting a strategic breakthrough in US-India relations, and upgrading the relationship between the two countries to a level that is not allies but surpasses allies. The main driving force It is the transformation of the U.S. foreign strategy to focus on major power competition and shape a new strategic environment and international order in the Indo-Pacific region against major strategic rivals. The U.S. regards India as an indispensable and key partner that plays a major pillar role. , and its status even exceeds that of Japan to a certain extent.

In this sense, India should be grateful for catching up with the good times, what the Americans call “the era of vigorous great power competition”. If not, India’s rise will be much more difficult and protracted, and it will not improve relations with the United States for quite a long time, and it can only play the role of regional hegemony in the narrow area of ​​South Asia-Indian Ocean.

At the same time, the contribution of the United States is not unilateral. In return, India is likely to cooperate with the US strategy in the Indo-Pacific region without compromising its own strategic interests. Biden himself has recently boasted that it is thanks to his diplomatic efforts that Japan has increased its defense spending—the subtext is that Japan will play the role of a military assistant to the United States in the East Asia-West Pacific.

Source : info.51.ca