Signalling a more transactional and interest-driven focus in its ties with India, the US has said that its objective is to work with India to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific that is not founded in naivete or “gauzy abstractions” like the rules-based international order, but in strength, reason, and hard-nosed collaboration. As he laid out the US approach to ties with India in geopolitical and defence spheres, undersecretary of war for policy Elbridge Colby said Tuesday no single no single country can maintain a stable balance of power in Asia. Instead, he said, stability will depend on the collective contributions of capable states that share an interest in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific. Significantly, while he underlined India’s “indispensable” role in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, Colby made no mention in his speech of Quad, the flagship US Indo-Pacific initiative revived by the first Trump administration.
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The mechanism, however, seems to have lost some of its salience with Washington after the president’s return to the White House as the US focus shifts from soft power initiatives to shared security outcomes and burden-sharing. The top US official was addressing an event at the Ananta Centre. As there’s no word yet on whether Trump would visit India this year for the Quad summit, hopes of a leaders’ meeting now rest on the France G7 summit in June that may see participation by leaders of all Quad countries. Colby took a swipe at Europe as he stressed that the US is still a rising power under Trump’s leadership but the same could not be said about some of Washington’s traditional partners, even as the US urges them to reinvigorate themselves. India, he said, was far different as a “waxing power”. “As a result, the United States believes that India will play a central role in ensuring a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. In this context, a strong, confident India is not only good for the Indian people. It is good for Americans as well,” said Colby, who is in India to discuss implementation of the Framework for the US-India Major Defense Partnership. The official suggested that the US may not be interested in framing of the relationship as one based just on shared democratic values, as he said the Indian-American partnership has its roots in practicality. “In line with this, the US approach to the strategic partnership is interests-based and realistic, shaped by geopolitics and incentives as opposed to gauzy aspirations or detached idealism,” said Colby, adding that Washington wants partnerships with vigorous, self-assured states, not with dependencies. Colby also backed external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s remarks that a nationalistic foreign policy outlook is likely to approach the world with more confidence and greater realism, saying this approach resonates with the US. Underlining the significance of “strategic candor” in ties, Colby said strong partnerships benefit from honesty, respect, and strategic clarity. As the bilateral relationship shows signs of recovery after one of its worst phases in recent times, Colby also said that the US and India do not need to agree on everything to cooperate effectively, as long as their interests and objectives increasingly converge on the most fundamental issues. Differences and even disputes are fully compatible with deepening alignment and cooperation on strategic matters, he said. The official also underscored the strategic centrality of military power for a stable balance in the region and the significance of defence industrial collaboration between India and the US.
