Manmohan Singh’s recent state visit — the first hosted by the Obama administration — has been almost universally criticised in India for being, although high on symbols, everything from a fizzle to a failure. The critics, in this instance, may be exaggerating. If the yardstick of success is replicating the July 2005 achievement, then this summit indeed pales in comparison. The 2005 visit was epochal because it removed the last major structural impediment to better US-Indian strategic relations. Since then, however, bilateral ties have become broad and diverse, spanning a variety of issues where both agreement and disagreement persist in varying measure. This dominance of ordinariness suggests that US-Indian ties today are rapidly approaching normality. Dramatic breakthroughs, therefore, will become increasingly rare, and although this visit did not produce any, it was nonetheless more successful than many commentators appreciate.

Consider the context surrounding the November summit. After eight years of an unprecedented deepening in bilateral ties, President Barack Obama got off to a rather wobbly start in sustaining the US partnership with India. Although Democratic cheerleaders were emphatic during the presidential campaign that Obama would be just as invested as Bush was in preserving India’s priority in US foreign policy, Obama’s early positions made those claims suspect. Beginning with his unenthusiastic support for the nuclear deal when still a US senator and continuing with his ruminations about mediating in Kashmir when still president-elect, Obama intimated changes in US policy that would have adversely affected India. Since becoming president, his evident hesitation about committing the resources necessary to secure victory in Afghanistan and the fear that he might seek to appease Pakistan at India’s expense combined to produce a deep anxiety about Obama’s strategic vision in New Delhi. Finally, his angst-inducing faux pas of failing to integrate India into his vision of Asian stability, even as he seemingly endorsed a Chinese oversight role in South Asia just on the eve of Singh’s visit to Washington, intensified the growing suspicion that Obama would likely end up undermining core Indian strategic interests.

... contd.