US, India bonds will impact all of Asia

If ever a bilateral visit merited being described as a landmark, then

last week’s trip to Washington by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi

will count as one. The United States’ wooing of the world’s most populous nation and rising economic power included a rare second opportunity accorded to Mr Modi to address the combined US Congress and a White House banquet for 400 guests. That all this attention must be heaped on a leader who, not too long ago, endured a nine-year visa ban from the US because of his perceived mishandling of communal riots in his home state Gujarat as its chief minister prior to 2014, speaks much of America’s geopolitical imperatives.

A 58-paragraph joint statement issued at the end of the visit amplifies a “seas to stars” vision of a deepening and widening relationship that encompasses the sharing of advanced military technology, and collaboration in space exploration, critical minerals, clean energy technology and a host of other issues, including people-to-people ties. Should even half of what is envisaged materialise, the emerging transformational relationship will have few parallels. While the two describe their relations as a “partnership of democracies” it would not be inaccurate to regard them as allies in a practical sense.