Inder Malhotra discusses the recent events that have upset the delicate applecart of Indo-US relations and why criticism from afar is always harder to take.
Only last month in both Washington and New Delhi there was an upbeat feeling, albeit with a measure of caution and subtle reservation, that Indo-US relations and co-operation were gathering momentum fast. The geo-strategic situation in the Indo-Pacific region, formerly called Asia-Pacific, had brought a 'convergence' in the interests of the world's most powerful and most populous democracies. China's growing power and equally rising assertiveness, especially about the South China Sea and other 'core interests' surely had something to do with this. Washington had already shifted its 'pivot' from the Middle East to East Asia, and US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, on a visit to New Delhi, had proclaimed India to be the 'lynchpin' of the new American strategy.
It is all the more regrettable therefore that two easily avoidable events, for which the US alone is responsible, should have caused offence to India, which while it may be happy to be America's 'equal partner' does not see itself as a NATO-style ally. Unfortunately, such ups and downs in the Indo-US partnership are not infrequent.
read more here: http://asianaffairs.in/august2012/indo-us-relations.html
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