The five-day state visit of PM Modi to the USA traversed some familiar and much new distance. It is well described as a pathbreaking visit. The grand ceremonial welcome extended into an open display of warmth, friendship and bonhomie that was visible throughout the visit. PM’s eloquent address to a joint session of the US Congress, his second, highlighted the sheer scope, breadth and depth of the relationship that is envisaged, said India’s FS in a press briefing. There is conviction that the expanding India-US partnership is a force for good that will help all humanity. The India-US Joint Statement of 22 June 2023 sets out “a vision of the United States and India as among the closest partners in the world—a partnership of democracies looking into the 21st century with hope, ambition, and confidence”.
The exuberance of the visit and its outcome should put to rest doubts raised in some quarters about an abiding India-US partnership. Around the time of the visit, there were comments that seemed almost to be aimed at undermining the forward movement of the relationship. Commitment from both sides managed to defy the pessimists as the visit achieved historic outcomes in a variety of areas.
Technology featured prominently during the visit in multiple manifestations. Areas like technology transfer, including trade in technology products, technology services, covering research, and joint efforts on developing technologies across different sectors, as well as technology capacity building cooperation between the two countries featured during discussions. The joint statement identifies several areas of technology partnership. The decision of investors like Micron to set up a semiconductor assembly and test facility in India with a total investment of around $2.75 billion or that of Lam Research’s plan to train 60,000 Indian engineers are some of the interesting outcomes of the visit,
An implementation arrangement between the National Science Foundation of the US and India’s Ministry of Electronics would streamline the process of funding of joint projects in areas like semiconductors, next generation communication, cyber security, green technologies and intelligent transport systems. This would also help in dealing with the increasingly complex threat posed by cyber space.
An initiative on critical and emerging technologies is aimed at joint development and commercialization of AI and quantum technologies, High Powered Computing technology and development of source codes, as well as the regulatory easing required for this area to develop. Google's $10 billion India Digitalization Fund and Amazon’s new investment of $6.5 billion will strengthen techno-commercial links. New initiatives are envisaged focusing on green hydrogen, biofuels, the deployment of greenfield renewable energy, battery storage, and emerging green technology in India.
An important outcome is in the area of cooperation in outer Space. India became a signatory to the Artemis Accord opening up a new area of partnership between Indian Space Research Organization and NASA and other relevant entities for cooperation in the field of outer space, including exploration initiatives on the moon and other outer space objects.
Substantive progress in the area of defense, led to an MoU between GE and India’s HAL for production of GE- F414 aeroengine for India's light combat aircraft, while plans to procure General Atomics MQ-9B HALE UAVs should enhance the capabilities of India’s armed forces. Commencement of negotiations with the U.S. Department of Defense for concluding the security of supply arrangement, and discussions on the reciprocal Defense Procurement Agreement should lead to further progress in times to come.
The commitment to empower the Quad “as a partnership for global good” highlights the growing strategic convergence between the two countries. The unambiguous position on global terrorism, calling for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups like the Al-Qaeda, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen, condemnation of “cross-border terrorism”, the use of terrorist proxies and calling on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks, are evidence of this growing convergence. The Joint Statement also said that “they called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice.”
In her comments on the visit in the Sunday Guardian of 2 July, Ambassador (retired) Shyamala B. Cowsik describes how far India and the US have travelled from the time in 1992 when Ambassador Dennis Kux regretfully titled his book ‘Estranged Democracies’. With so much meaningful progress made during PM Modi’s visit, she believes that the unprecedentedly wide range of cooperation set out in the 58-para Joint Statement has enough content to inspire a new book by Ambassador Kux, entitled “United Democracies”.