U.S.-India Strategic Convergences in the IndoPacific: Evolving Regional Dynamics and Responses

Research Article

Abstract

US-India strategic relations have achieved many milestones, overcoming decades of mistrust. China’s ascendance and its accompanying consequences have triggered an overarching convergence of US and Indian interests especially within the Indo-Pacific region. Building on the contributions of successive US administrations and overcoming the ideological barriers associated with non-alignment, the Modi-led BJP has chosen to pursue multi-alignment and a stronger strategic partnership with the US. In order to counter the growing power of China, the US and allies along with India are promoting the notion of Indo-Pacific and legitimizing New Delhi’s role within the security architecture of the new regional construct. This is likely to have implications for China’s security which has chosen to respond to the US-India geo-strategic approach by way of a grand geo-economic strategy in form of the BRI. It is also engaged in military modernization and actively asserting its claims within disputed territories. Additionally, India has been slowly yet steadily realizing the need to seek external balancing to resolve the challenges it faces vis-à-vis China. On more than one occasions India has witnessed the limits of its power and the lack of viable policy options while dealing with China bilaterally. Since 1962, this lack of options vis-à-vis China was never more evident than it was during the Sino-Indian clash in Ladakh in 2020. Therefore, the realization that the way forward is through external balancing, be it through bilateral arrangements such as Indo-US cooperation or through multilateral arrangements, for instance Quad with Japan, Australia and USA. The idea of Quad is presumably to evolve into something more credible and a dependable mechanism that might have discernable impact on the Indo-Pacific region. Therefore, an academic discussion is warranted to discuss the latest developments that are impacting the regional security dynamics.