Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'US and West are more reliable than Russia and China' that was published in Newsband

US and West are more reliable than Russia and China

India and United States are the two countries bound by virtue of being ‘the world’s largest democracy and the world’s oldest democracy’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit the White House in September. He will be holding talks with President Barack Obama.

India is the world’s largest importer of arms, and also among the biggest buyers of U.S. material. New Delhi has bought U.S. defence equipment worth nearly $10 billion and has been pushing for transfer of technology to manufacture those weapons here. The best way to transform defence ties would be to move from simply buying and selling to co-production, co-development, and freer exchange of technology. Can Modi get the U.S. to take its military partnership with India to a higher level?

The United States has identified India as a pivotal player in the world affairs ahead. The prime consideration that prompts US to establish close defense based relation is that US wants to check the growing ties between India and China and utilize the ever growing weapon market in India. Knowing very well that India is surrounded by perennial enemies, the U.S has been providing arms and ammunition to India.

But if you consider the love-hate relationship of US with India and Pakistan, the US, for strategic reasons, shows more love and less hate towards Pakistan. Here India will have to make great effort to come in the good books of US. The US has been having an unwavering strategic relationship with our neighbour, Pakistan, for decades now in spite of the repeated back stabs it has received from the ally.

It's important to note that India will play a crucial role in the "LOOK EAST POLICY" of the US, since it's facing a tough challenge from the Chinese in all sectors. So it will be important from the India's perspective to bargain in all sorts of thing keeping ourselves in upper-hand. We can dictate the terms on various background such as in technology transfer in defense sector, greater role in U.N. security council etc.

India holds an important position in USA's geo politics. For USA, Indian support is must to maintain its strong position in Asia and to counter the burgeoning power of China and Russia. Strong Indo-US ties are favourable to both the nations.

Some lovers of Russia feel that friendship between India and US cannot be eternal and hence India should rely more on Russia. Have these pro-Russians forgotten the backstabbing by the USSR during the China-India war of 1962? Were the Russian warplanes reliable then?

The thing is both India and US, and so also other Western countries, are not only democratic but they are nations which pursue some religion or the other. Hence both tend to practice morality. On the other hand, Russia and China are communist, capitalistic and autocratic countries. Hence India has more things in common with America and the West and they are more reliable than Russia and China.