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Nikolas Gvosdev (along with Dan Twining and Peter Pham) is worried that the Obama administration may not be paying India enough attention:
It's still early, of course. But the new U.S. - India relationship, while it has progressed a great deal, still remains unconsolidated. New Delhi cannot be taken for granted by Washington. It would be a pity if because of inattention or lack of focus, we have to cover some of the same ground again in the future.Really?I guess that I look at the Indo-US relationship and see an asymmetry of needs; the Indians need us much, much more than we need them. The United States controls all of the economic levers in the relationship, and has better relations with both Indian strategic competitors (China and Pakistan) than India itself. India retains a decent relationship with Russia, but that has been strained by severe tensions over weapon purchases (India's effort to acquire two nuclear submarines and one aircraft carrier from Russia have gone very poorly), and Russia is simply not in a position right now to match any "offer" that the US can make to India. I think it's super that the world's two largest democracies have finally become close friends, after a needlessly confusing Cold War in which China rallied to the United States and India to the Soviet Union. I also think that managing India's nuclear capability through cooperation is altogether more productive than adopting an antagonistic position. Finally, the US and India do share the problem of extremist terrorism. All that said, I think it's pretty clear that the United States holds all of the important cards in this relationship. India needs us far more than we need India, and as such concern that Obama will somehow miss an opportunity is misplaced. --Robert Farley