Republicans or Democrats: Why India’s ties with US will remain intact

New Delhi, Nov 05: India has developed a great deal of familiarity with Donald Trump over the past four years and if he wins, India will find itself on familiar territory.

India is however of the view the outcome of the elections in the US, will not impact its relations. The relations are based on bipartisan support. Moreover, Joe Biden has also made it clear that he values strong India-US relations and this is also common to both Biden and Trump.

Harsh Shringla, India's foreign secretary said in an interview to DW News channel, " our relations with the US are really based on bipartisan support, you see it in Congress, you see it at the public levels. We do believe that we have forged a relationship that today has withstood the test of time, is very comprehensive and multi-faceted."

He also said that India and US not only share the same values and principles but also have the same strategic vision in what could be bilateral, regional or multilateral relations. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi's relations with Trump have been special, relations with Barack Obama too were very special he also said.

Vishnu Prakash, former Indian envoy, who has served as the Ambassador to Canada and South Korea as well as Foreign Office Spokesperson told OneIndia that if one looks over the 20 year period, the relations between India and the US have been steadily growing stronger. The visit to India of Bill Clinton in March 2000 marked a turning point in relations. Since then the relations have been transformed, he also said.

Amb Prakash has also done postings at the Consulate General in New York and as the Consul General to Shanghai also said that the Republicans have been more supportive of India and for them the focus has been the bigger picture. But it was Clinton, a Democrat who set the ties in motion. Barack Obama initially was inclined towards China, but that changed later, Prakash said.

He went on to add that in addition to the bilateral synergies, the China factor, has been instrumental in bringing the sides closer. The US is interested in India for a variety of factors such as, fast growing economy, huge market, quality of human capital, geostrategic location, as also, security, defence, energy and educational considerations.

We have 60 bilateral dialogue mechanisms, topped by the 2+2 ministerial consultations - which speaks volumes of the broad spectrum of convergences.

That explains the upward trajectory in the ties regardless of which political party is in power in either country, the former Ambassador also said.