Senator John McCain, R-AZ, who traveled to India in July, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds the potential for transforming the flagging U.S. partnership with India. Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Sept. 9, McCain said Modi’s election has “transformational potential” and that India should consider joining the emerging European/American front to combat the Islamic State (ISIL) the relatively new configuration of religious fundamentalists in the Middle East.
“Whether it is steps our countries can take to enhance our influence, or to project our influence together, the meeting this month between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama is, and must be, an opportunity for true strategic dialogue – not a scripted exchange of talking points, but an open discussion of the big questions,” McCain asserted trotting out the usual laundry list of areas of cooperation.
Al Qaeda’s recent announcement of an India wing, he said was “the clearest reminder of the vital stake that our nations have in a stable Middle East,” McCain said. “Imagine the signal India would send if it joined the emerging international coalition to confront ISIS,” he asked.
Modi, he said, sees the U.S.-India strategic partnership as integral to his domestic agenda of revitalizing India economically and geopolitically. “The Prime Minister and I agreed that this goal is much needed, because recently, our partnership has not lived up to its potential.”
McCain’s assessment comes a few weeks before Modi arrives in the U.S. to attend the United Nations General Assembly session in New York and meet President Obama in Washington, D.C. Both countries have focused more on what they can get out of each other rather than defining priorities and working on them, McCain said. “In short, our strategic relationship has unfortunately devolved recently into a transactional one.”
The senator credited the first Bharatiya Janata Party administration under then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with jumpstarting change in the U.S.-India relationship that rested more on Cold War positioning than 20th Century realities. “It is worth recalling this original sense of purpose in our partnership, because I fear we have lost much it in recent years. And there is blame on both sides,” McCain conceded.
Washington feels it has been let down starting from the nuclear agreement to trade disputes, all admittedly compounded by domestic politics, and a feeling in India that the U.S. was not a distracted if not unreliable partner.
McCain trotted out the usual laundry list of areas of cooperation to rebuild the strategic focus — press on with energy development, education, infrastructure and trade and investment. He called for joint development and production of leading-edge military systems including Anti-tank missiles, counterterrorism cooperation, intelligence-sharing, and dealing with extremism in Pakistan.