What Does India Want from a Partnership? A Conversation with Shivshankar Menon

Exactly what kind of partnership does India seek with the United States? India claims to prize strategic autonomy, but it has also built an unprecedented partnership with the United States. This conversation examines India’s strategy in calibrating its partnership with the U.S., and how that might advance its larger policy goals

Featuring:

Shivshankar Menon
Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi, and a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University

Arzan Tarapore
South Asia Research Scholar, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

[joem]

India partnered with the US in the reconsturction of Afghanistan. Upon being abandoned by the US together with AF, Indian interests of 2 to 3B$ has been lost. Now the Taliban has the cheeks to tell India to come and finish thier projects !! The US has abandonned its seizure of North Korea, its South Vietnamese allies, the Afghan allies to the Taliban. Even NATO allies are angry. Will Asian nations ever learn the depth of US commitment in Asia ?

[joem]

Central+South+East has total of 31 countries counting RU. Out all that the US can recruit 3 into the Quad (IN+AU+JP) hardly a majority vote for US supremacy in Asia. And there is no Quad treaty on the horizon.

[joem]

While the US can pull up anchor one day from Asia, India is conjoint to China with a long LAC, not even called a border. India needs to focus on more butter, less guns for her abject poor shown during the Apr-2021 Covid wave. India should ask that if they ally with the US, will the US send troops against the Pakistan and China fronts should a land war arise. Even Australia is worried that the US will abandon them when the cost of dominating Asia goes up further (ref: Hugh White, ANU).

[Hypocrites-]

India n USA should take care of homeless n poor citizens in their country before interfere in other countries internal affairs

[rahulbhagat]

India's stance on whether it should cooperate on a deeper level with the US because of increasing Chinese hostility is rather clear. Yes, it should. The other main question is Can India befriend US and Russia at the same time ? The US has warned India of CAATSA ( which India has time and again said - it does not recognise unilateral actions ).
From Russia's point of view, this is the real test for India and her commitment to Indo-russian friendship.

Can India maintain strategic autonomy by taking delivery of S400 systems or succumb to US interest instead of pursuing her own ?

As For the Taiwan case - India doesn't have the military power projection capability yet nor the incentive to intervene with force, as Mr. Menon said. As for Soft power or diplomacy, countries like Japan, US, Russia, will have a very high degree of influence on politics than India has right now. It could even be argued that India is a sitting duck when it comes to the taiwan issue. It can't or wouldn't want to risk more hostility by china on engaging or supporting taiwan publicly.