US-India Partnership : It Matters
The Relationship between Independent India and United States of America started when India followed the policy of Non-Alignment to maintain peaceful environment necessary for socio-economic development. It was during the period of Bill Clinton and George Bush the relationship between India and U.S. was initiated. The Relationship between two countries was become strong enough to control the Indian Ocean sea lanes from Suez Canal to Singapore after the September 11 terror attack in US. India and U.S. signed open skies agreement to enhance trade, business and tourism by increasing the number of flights between two countries subsequently India purchased 68 Boeing Aircrafts from US.
In July 20, 2009 External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed to building an enhanced India- U.S. strategic partnership to strengthen the existing bilateral relationships and cooperation between India and United States of America and maintaining strong foundation of economic and social linkages between our respective people, private sectors, and institutions.
The NSSP agreements was signed for enhancing co-operation in civil space and high technology commerce and as a consequence of developing closer relations in defence both have conducted joint military exercises in Indian ocean. India and US Also reaffirmed the commitment of both Governments to build on recent increased coordination in counter-terrorism and also to enhance the defence co-operation under the Defence Co-operation Framework Agreement of 2005 to pursue mutual benefits. By establishing bilateral dialogue India and the United States will also cooperate to prevent nuclear terrorism and address the challenges of global nuclear proliferation. The United states-India peaceful atomic cooperation act was passed to allow direct nuclear commerce between two countries which entitles India to purchase US nuclear material and reactors for peaceful uses.
U.S. is the largest foreign investment partner in India with total investment of $9billion till 2009 which is 9% of total foreign investment in India. India imports and exports to U.S. goods worth $17 billion and $24 billion and the major item imports includes aircrafts,fertilizers, computer hardware etc. and exports includes IT services, textile , diamonds , iron and steel products etc.. As members of the G-20, India and the United States have pledged to work together with other major economies to foster a sustainable recovery from the global economic crisis through a commitment to open trade and investment policies.
Indo-U.S. science and technology collaboration, have concluded a Science and Technology Endowment Agreement, and signed a Technology Safeguards Agreement that will permit the launch of civil or non-commercial satellites containing U.S. components on Indian space launch vehicles (chandraayan-I). The Chandraayan-I carrying the U.S. components such as Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (minisar), Lunar Crater Observation & Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) confirms the close science and technology relations between two countries and the scientists of India and U.S. also cooperating in Space research. ISRO and NASA also planning to join hands in the future moon mission of India the Chandrayaan-II.
India – U.S. Energy Dialogue which focuses on Increasing energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean energy technologies was pledged and the Global Climate Change Dialogue which tries to launch a process of bilateral scientific and technological collaboration to support the development, deployment and transfer of transformative and innovative technologies in areas of mutual interest including solar and other renewable energy, clean coal and energy efficiency, and other relevant areas.
The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal refers to a bilateral accord on civil nuclear cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of India. The framework for this agreement was a July 18, 2005 joint statement by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then U.S. President George W. Bush, under which India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
The Recent visit of Indian prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to U.S. had further strengthen the close relationship where both leaders discussed about regional situation , International terrorism and global economy. Further the ‘Obama Singh 21st Century knowledge initiative ‘ framework was launched to improve the link between Universities and exchange of faculty members. They also signed Two Memorandums of Understanding one to enhance cooperation on energy security ,efficiency , clean energy and climate change and another to expand cooperation in food security.
Recently The American Defence Society cooperation agency has notified the US congress of the Obama administration’s Intention to sell 145 M777 howitzers to India. On April 6, 2010 India and US Launched a Joint Financial and Economic Partnership forum to fund future Innovations and leverage investments in infrastructure development. The three key areas which are in focus are macroeconomic policy , financial sector reforms and infrastructure financing. The approval of India’s request to access David Headly also shows the cooperation between India and US to combat Global Terrorism and the synchronization between two countries Intelligence agencies.
Conclusion:
Thus the points above prove that there is a strong relationship between India and United States of America in three major aspects was the Defence cooperation, Civil nuclear deal, Economic cooperation. This relationship became stronger than ever after Obama’s administration came into existence. The relationship between two countries bring focus on sustainable economic growth , Clean energy , Climate Change , Security , renewable energy etc. will eventually lead to attraction of world countries to be friendly with these two countries and thus further these contributes to global development in those key areas.
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