India and the US issued Vision Statement to boost strategic ties

India and the United States issued Vision Statement to boost strategic ties on 29 September 2014. The Vision Statement titled Chalein Saath-Saath: Forward Together We Go was issued after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Barack Obama at the dinner at White House in Washington DC.

The joint statement sought to expand and deepen the strategic partnership between the largest and oldest democracies in the world for the benefit of not only the two nations but also for the benefit of the world.

Main Highlights of the Vision Statement

• Both the countries would cooperate in security and fight terrorism
• It called for an inclusive rule based global order in which India will assume greater multilateral responsibility, including a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
• Both the countries also determined to work together to tackle the threat of climate change
• The two countries also committed to cooperate to address the consequences of unchecked pollution through cooperation among governments, science and academic communities of both the nations.
• Both the countries will partner to ensure that they have affordable, clean, reliable, and diverse sources of energy, including efforts to bring American-origin nuclear power technologies to India.
• Two countries would also work to ensure that economic growth brought better livelihoods for all people.
• The vision statement also stressed the importance of open markets and fair and transparent practices to allow trade to flourish.
• The joint statement also called for jointly countering the infectious diseases, eliminate maternal and child deaths, and work to eradicate poverty for all and ensure the fullest empowerment of women in a secure environment.
• Both the nation highlighting the mission of their founding fathers emphasised to provide equal opportunity for our people through democracy and freedom.
• The statement also committed to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and reduce the salience of nuclear weapons so as to promote universal, verifiable, and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament.

Analysis and Comment

The US is keen on expanding business and security ties with India so as to counterbalance an increasingly assertive China in Asia. However, so far the relationship between the two nations failed to live up to the Joint Declaration issued in 2010. The Joint Declaration called for making the Indo-US partnerships one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century.

It has to be seen whether the hype generated by Narendra Modi’s first visit to the US in his capacity as Prime Minister really becomes the defininf relationship between the two nations or not.