India–United States Relations
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
India–United States relations India–United States relations, also known as Indian– Indo–American relations American relations or Indo–American relations, refers to the international relations between the Republic of India and the United States of America. Prominent leaders of India's freedom movement had friendly relations with the United States of America which continued well after independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. In 1954, the United States made Pakistan a Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) treaty-ally. India cultivated strategic and military relations with the Soviet Union to counter India United States Pakistan–United States relations. In 1961, India became a Diplomatic mission founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement to avoid Indian Embassy, United States involvement in the Cold War power-play between the United Washington, D.C. Embassy, New States and the Soviet Union. The Nixon administration's Delhi support for Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Envoy affected relations until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in U.S. Ambassador 1991. In the 1990s, Indian foreign policy adapted to the Indian Kenneth Juster unipolar world and developed closer ties with the United Ambassador Harsh Vardhan States. Shringla[1] In the twenty-first century, Indian foreign policy has sought to leverage India's strategic autonomy in order to safeguard sovereign rights and promote national interests within a multi-polar world. Under the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the United States has demonstrated accommodation to India's core national interests and acknowledged outstanding concerns. Increase in bilateral trade & investment, co-operation on global security matters, inclusion of India in decision- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with making on matters of global governance (United Nations U.S. President Donald Trump at the 45th G7 Security Council), upgraded representation in trade & in Biarritz, September 2019. investment forums (World Bank, IMF, APEC), admission into multilateral export control regimes (MTCR, Wassenaar Arrangement, Australia Group) and support for admission in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and joint-manufacturing through technology sharing arrangements have become key milestones and a measure of speed and advancement on the path to closer US–India relations. In 2016, India and United States signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement and India was declared a Major Defense Partner of the United States. According to Gallup's annual World Affairs survey, India is perceived by Americans as their sixth favorite nation in the world, with 71% of Americans viewing India favorably in 2015. Gallup polls found that 74% of Americans viewed India favorably in 2017 and 72% in 2019. In the year 2017, bilateral trade (in both goods & services) grew by 9.8% to reach US$126,100,000,000. India's exports to the US stood at US$76,700,000,000 while USA's exports to India stood at US$49,400,000,000 [16][17] Contents History British Raj Left to right: US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, US Secretary of Independence (1947–1997) State Mike Pompeo, Indian Minister NDA government (1998–2004) of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, UPA I & II governments (2004–2014) and Indian Defense Minister Nirmala BJP government (2014–present) Sitharaman during first ever 2+2 conference at New Delhi in the year Military relations 2018 Nuclear cooperation Economic relations Trade relations See also Notes Further reading External links History Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. British Raj The relationships between India in the colonial days of the British Raj and the United States were thin. Swami Vivekananda promoted Yoga and Vedanta in the United States at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, during the World's Fair in 1893. Mark Twain visited India in 1896 and described it in his travelogue Following the Equator with both revulsion and attraction before concluding that India was the only foreign land U.S. Embassy in New Delhi he dreamed about or longed to see again. Regarding India, Americans learned more from English writer Rudyard Kipling.[21] Mahatma Gandhi had an important influence on the philosophy of non-violence promoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1950s. In the 1930s and early-1940s, the United States gave very strong support to the Indian independence movement in defiance of the British Empire. The first significant immigration from India before 1965 involved Sikh farmers going to California in the early-twentieth century. World War II Everything changed during World War II, when India became the main base for the American China Burma India Theater (CBI) in the war against Japan. Tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived, bringing all sorts of advanced technology, and money; they left in 1945. Serious tension erupted over American demands, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that India be given independence, a proposition UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill vehemently rejected. For years, Roosevelt had encouraged British disengagement from India. The American Swami Vivekananda at the position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, Parliament of Religions with Virchand practical concern for the outcome of the war, and the expectation Gandhi, Hewivitarne Dharmapala of a large American role in a post-colonial era. However, in 1942 when the Indian National Congress launched a Quit India movement, the British authorities immediately arrested tens of thousands of activists. Meanwhile, India became the main American staging base for aid to China. Churchill threatened to resign if Roosevelt pushed too hard, so Roosevelt backed down. Independence (1947–1997) The United States under the Truman administration leaned American GIs at a market in Calcutta towards favouring India in the late-1940s as a consequence of (now Kolkata) in 1945. most U.S. planners seeing India more valuable diplomatically than neighboring Pakistan. However, during the Cold War Nehru's policy of neutrality was awkward to many American observers. American officials perceived India's policy of non- alignment negatively. Ambassador Henry F. Grady told then- Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that the United States did not consider neutrality to be an acceptable position. Grady told the State Department in December 1947 that he had informed Nehru "that this is a question that cannot be straddled and that India should get on the democratic side immediately". In 1948, Nehru rejected American suggestions for resolving the President Truman and Prime Minister Kashmir crisis via third party mediation. Nehru in Washington, 1949, with Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Nehru's 1949 tour of the United States was "an undiplomatic Indian ambassador to the United disaster" that left bad feelings on both sides. Nehru and his top States. aide Krishna Menon discussed whether India should "align with United States 'somewhat' and build up our economic and military strength."[30] The Truman administration was quite favorable and indicated it would give Nehru anything he asked for. He proudly refused to beg, and thereby forfeited the chance for a gift of one million tons of wheat. The American Secretary of State Dean Acheson recognized Nehru's potential world role but added that he was "one of the most difficult men with whom I have ever had to deal." The American visit had some benefits in that Nehru gained widespread understanding and support for his nation, and he himself gained a much deeper understanding of the American outlook. India rejected the American advice that it should not recognise the Communist conquest of China, but it did back the US when it supported the 1950 United Nations resolution condemning North Korea's aggression in the Korean War. India tried to act as a broker to help end that war, and served as a conduit for diplomatic messages between the US and China. Although no Indian troops took part in the war, India did send a Medical Corps of 346 army doctors to help the UN side. Meanwhile, poor harvests forced India to ask for American aid for its food security, which was given starting in 1950.In the first dozen years of Indian independence (1947–59), the US provided $1,700,000,000 in aid; including $931,000,000 in food. The Soviet Union provided about half as much in monetary terms, however made much larger contributions in kind, taking the form of infrastructural aid, soft loans, technical knowledge transfer, economic planning and skills involved in the areas of steel mills, machine building, hydroelectric power and other heavy industries- especially nuclear energy and space research. In 1961, the US pledged $1,000,000,000 in development loans, in addition to $1,300,000,000 of free food. In 1959, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first US President to visit India to strengthen the staggering ties between the two nations. He was so supportive that the New York Times remarked, "It did not seem to matter much whether Nehru had actually requested or been given a guarantee that the US would help India to meet further Chinese Communist aggression. What mattered was the obvious strengthening of Indian–American friendship to a point where no such guarantee was necessary." Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru During John F. Kennedy's receiving President Dwight D. Presidency (1961–63), Eisenhower at Parliament House, India was considered a before the President's address to a strategic partner and joint session of Parliament, 1959. counterweight to the rise of Communist China. Kennedy said, Chinese Communists have been moving ahead the last 10 years. India has been making some progress, John Kenneth Galbraith (far left), as but if India does not succeed with her 450 million US ambassador to India, with people, if she can't make freedom work, then people President John F. Kennedy, Vice- President Lyndon B. Johnson and around the world are going to determine, particularly Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of in the underdeveloped world, that the only way they India, 1961 can develop their resources is through the Communist system.