‘Bipartisan disinterest in the relationship’: Postdoc researcher asks how important India is for the US

How willing Washington is to mend its relationship with New Delhi depends on how important India is to the US, says a postdoctoral research fellow. He added that there are many factors involved, and India’s standing is determined by where it features on the US' priority list.

“There is a bipartisan disinterest in the India relationship. If you ask, both Democrats and Republicans will say it is an important relationship. But will they prioritise it when there is a clash in pursuing India relations and doing other things?” asked Kunal Singh, adding that these other things could include pressuring Russia, penalising those who are buying Iranian oil, safeguarding nukes in Pakistan, reaching an economic agreement with China etc.

Singh, a Stanton Nuclear Security postdoctoral research fellow at Belfer Center, said the road to bettering the relationship with India involves people in the US who care enough to prioritise the relationship and whether they are in a power of influence and whether it matters enough for them to use their scarce political capital for this purpose.

“If one of those things harms the India relationship, there must be influential people who care about it enough to stake their political capital on reversing it. If there is such a person — ideally, you need several — they might be disagreeing with the US admin on many things,” he said, pointing out that they cannot get their way in all of those things.

“So, they MUST prioritise. Will India figure at the top of their list? The most likely answer is: NO. Even very influential people in the admin have limited political capital that they must use judiciously,” he said.

“So, the question we must ask is not whether the India relationship is important, but how important. The question we must ask is not whether there is bipartisan consensus in favour of India, but how deep that consensus is. What if the consensus clashes with other priorities?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the US has threatened India with higher, secondary tariffs if New Delhi does not stop purchasing Russian oil. This is on top of the 50 per cent tariff already imposed. Meanwhile, the US has delayed the tariff deadline for China for 90 days, even as Beijing continues to buy Russian oil.

“The Europeans need to join us in these sanctions…They need to…It’s put up or shut up time…We put secondary tariffs on the Indians for buying Russian oil. And I could see if things don’t go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.