Will new India-US strategic roadmap translate on ground ?

New Delhi is looking to the Biden administration to hasten the aims by cutting through Cold War Washington bureaucracy, despite the fact that the national security advisors of India and the US have mapped out an ambitious road-map on deep collaboration in strategic technology.

S. Jaishankar, India’s minister of external affairs, said that the country has made significant adjustments to its foreign policy and stressed a shift in American perceptions of the world’s largest democracy. In the 1960s, 1980s, or even 2005 (the year both nations signed the civilian nuclear pact), he claimed, “This is not the same America with which we dealt.”

The India-US bilateral account as foreign service officer for half his life including the nuclear deal, there is not an iota of doubt about cementing of ties between the two democracies. The bilateral relations between the two countries have reached new heights under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with both countries on the same page on most global issues and ready for an open detailed discussion on issues where India and US have different perspectives.

Since 2004, Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration, the US has spoken about the transfer of essential and dual-use technologies, but little of that is still visible in the defense/security industry today. Remember that on July 28, 2002, while visiting with then-NSA Brajesh Mishra at PM Vajpayee’s residence, it was then-Secretary of State Colin Powell who originally proposed the civilian nuclear agreement to India by isolating military nuclear reactors.

India became a major defence importer from US starting with gun-locating radars post Kargil war, Apache attack helicopters, C-130 and C-17 medium to heavy lift transport aircraft, P8I multi-mission surveillance aircraft, Sea Guardian drones on lease and landing ship INS Jalashwa apart from turbine engines for INS Vikrant.