To check aggressive China, House panel asks Biden admn to work on Indo-Pacific strategy
New Delhi: The Biden administration must address India’s ties with Russia and its “downward trend of democratic values and institutions”, said a report by the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, a special report by Sandeep Dikshit in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
The report said the Biden administration was right in not predicating the Indo-Pacific strategy only on competition with China. But to succeed, it has to grapple with the realities of this competition for the US and the challenges it poses for its regional allies and partners, it said.
The report urged the US government to wean India away from Russian dependence on arms and to take a firmer stand on India’s human rights record.
It also acknowledged that the Indo-US relationship has been on an upward trajectory for more than two decades overcoming Cold War antagonism and India’s testing of a nuclear device in 1998.
“Even as the administration rightly treats India as an important security partner, it will need to address the very real complications of India’s continued ties with, and dependence on, Russia for defence equipment and its recent downward trend of democratic values and institution,” it said.
“In the nine years, two administrations, and numerous strategies since my last report, little progress has been made to advance US diplomacy and development efforts in the Indo-Pacific, all while China continues to expand its influence through aggressive imposition on states’ sovereignty, localised disinformation campaigns, and predatory economic investments,” said Senate Foreign Affairs Chairman Robert Menendez while releasing the report, “Strategic Alignment: The Imperative of Resourcing the Indo-Pacific Strategy”.
The report wanted the US and its partners to provide alternative financing and economic development projects to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Digital Silk Road.
He described the US and India as major defence partners and noted the new joint initiative on critical and emerging technologies in areas such as quantum computing, 5G and 6G networks, space, semiconductors, biotech, and artificial intelligence.
In the past the US administration has said that it raises concerns over backsliding in India’s democratic credentials during high-level interactions between officials and ministers.
“Even as the administration rightly treats India as an important security partner, it will need to address the very real complications of India’s continued ties with, and dependence on, Russia for defence equipment and its recent downward trend of democratic values and institution,” it said.
It has given leeway to the South Block by not acting on successive reports by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom to red flag India as a country of particular concern.
New Delhi on the other hand has always maintained that India has well-established democratic practices and robust institutions to safeguard the rights of all.
The US has also been discouraging India from relying on Russia for its defence needs. New Delhi is under the threat of facing US sanctions under the Countering America’s
Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for its $5 billion deal for purchase of Russian S-400 air defence missile systems.
Wants alternative to China’s Belt and road initiative
The report wants the US and its partners to provide alternative financing and economic development projects to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Digital Silk Road.
Flags dependence over defence items
Even as the administration rightly treats India as an important security partner, it will need to address the very real complications of India’s continued ties with, and dependence on, Russia for defence equipment and its recent downward trend of democratic values and institution.
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