Washington, Dec 9 (IANS) India and the United States risk undermining more than two decades of strategic progress unless they urgently resolve growing political strains over tariffs and Washington’s renewed engagement with Pakistan, policy expert Dhruva Jaishankar said in a written statement submitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee ahead of a key hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Jaishankar, Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America, told lawmakers in his written testimony that the US-India partnership — built steadily through bipartisan effort in both countries — now faces “a political standstill” driven largely by disputes over trade and the US outreach to Pakistan’s military leadership.
He said the relationship, strengthened since 1998 through economic convergence and Indo-Pacific coordination, is at risk of losing momentum at a time when both countries confront China’s expanding footprint and instability across key regions. The partnership, he wrote, has rested on “mutually-beneficial economic opportunities in both countries” and “strategic coordination, particularly in the Indo-Pacific amid China’s rise and growing assertiveness and, more recently, in stabilizing the Middle East.”
But progress on several fronts, he cautioned, is now jeopardized. “The present situation risks jeopardizing mutually-beneficial cooperation on (i) the ambitious bilateral agenda outlined by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi in February 2025… and (ii) strategic cooperation between the two countries in the Quad, in the Middle East, and on global affairs,” he said.
The statement submitted Monday provides a detailed account of the advances in US-India ties over nearly three decades — from the lifting of sanctions in 1999 to the 2008 civil nuclear agreement, expanded defense interoperability, the Quad’s revival, and India’s integration into US-led coordination on space, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence.
Jaishankar pointed to China’s increasingly assertive military posture as a fundamental driver of strategic convergence. He cited China’s incursions along the disputed land boundary with India, the 2020 Galwan clashes, its “largest naval build-ups in history,” and a widening network of dual-use ports across the Indo-Pacific. “China’s military capabilities now rival those of the United States,” he wrote.
Jaishankar also stressed that India faces Chinese pressure on the maritime front, noting that India has expanded naval patrols since 2017 and deepened cooperation with regional partners, including through the Quad’s Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness initiative.
Turning to the latest friction with Washington, he said the bilateral relationship was jolted after India’s retaliatory strikes on Pakistan following a deadly April terrorist attack, and by Washington’s subsequent high-profile engagement with Pakistan’s military leadership.
He recalled Pakistan’s long record of supporting terrorist proxies, saying “Pakistan’s continued support for terrorism – and its contributions to conflict and instability in the broader region – still constitute a major political and security challenge.”
Another major source of strain is trade. Jaishankar said US tariffs imposed after talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement stalled have become “among the highest on any country” and now threaten exporters, workers, and investors on both sides. He warned that the longer these duties remain in place, the more they will be seen in India as “an act of political hostility.”
Yet he noted that cooperation has continued in several areas this year, including a new 10-year Defense Framework Agreement, major defence sales, expanded military exercises, NASA-supported human spaceflight, the co-developed NISAR satellite launch, and India’s landmark $1.3-billion LNG import deal with the United States.
Jaishankar said the partnership still holds enormous potential across four pillars — trade, energy, technology, and defense — and highlighted upcoming opportunities in artificial intelligence, critical minerals, semiconductor supply chains, and defence co-production under the US-India TRUST initiative.
--IANS
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