Having presided over damaging US processes on the Narendra Modi visa issue and the diplomatic fiasco involving an Indian foreign service official, Kerry ramped up talk about a "new set of opportunities, new possibilities" with the new government, going as far as to cite Prime Minister Modi's Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas slogan. There were several other laudatory references in his speech to Modi's vision and dynamism, a far cry from the harsh language and contempt State Department factotums had displayed during the visa imbroglio.
All that is evidently in the past, because, Kerry told the Center for American Progress thinktank, "this is the moment to transform our strategic relationship into an historic partnership that honors our place as great powers and great democracies," a partnership that he projected will be consecrated when the US President will welcome Prime Minister Modi to Washington in September. Deepening ties, Kerry maintained, is a "strategic imperative" for both countries — "It doesn't matter just to us or to India; it actually matters to the world."
While much of his address was upbeat with its panoramic vision of a strategic US-India partnership that stopped just short of an alliance, Kerry subtly flagged several bilateral areas of concern for Washington, mainly in the trade and business domain that will be pursued by his co-traveler to New Delhi, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. They include removing various trade barriers, including fewer limits on US technology and products in areas ranging from energy to agriculture. From the solar spat to the unfulfilled civilian nuclear agreement to climate change, there were several areas of dispute Kerry quietly underlined, although he emphasized that "we need to keep our eye on the prize out there and not get dragged down by one small or lesser particular aspect of a restraint."
"The bigger picture has to guide us and the end game has to guide us," Kerry said.
That big picture end game, in Washington's vision, is a US-India partnership that can create a "more prosperous and secure future for the world and for one another."
Whether Kerry will be able to sell that vision to the new BJP leadership in New Delhi where its old allies such as A B Vajpayee, L K Advani and Jaswant Singh have been sidelined, is a $500 billion (the targeted figure for bilateral trade) question.
Despite the rosy verbal outreach, distrust of US intention - and lack of attention to New Delhi's concerns - remains high in the current Indian establishment, exacerbated by the spying/snooping scandal (some of it directed against the BJP) and various trade disputes in which India has been subjected to immense hectoring with little concession from the United States. There have also been consistent voices in the Indian establishment cautioning against becoming a US cat's paw in Asia-Pacific and urging strategic autonomy.
Kerry appeared to acknowledged that saying that the US recognized that in a globalized world, India's going to have many different partners. "But we believe there are unique opportunities for just United States and India," he maintained, identifying common areas of dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit (Hollywood/Bollywood, Boston/Bangalore) that few other countries could generate.
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