Biden got to bring Narendra Modi, Fumio Kishida and Anthony Albanese ‘home’ to Wilmington and then take them to his school for the Quad summit. They indulged him. But that’s what farewells are for. It was an especially emotional moment for Modi and Biden – the two have taken their bilateral ties to the next level. They clearly have a bond and recognise each other’s importance in the world order.
Biden will be remembered by the Indian side in the same breath as George W Bush. If Bush began a new era in India-US relations with the civil nuclear deal despite stern opposition from his establishment, Biden changed the establishment mindset from tech-denial to tech-sharing with India. That one was a Republican and other a Democrat underscores the bipartisan investment, a Washington consensus.
First, the Quad. Behind all the nostalgia and memory-making, serious business was done and steps taken to counter China’s aggressive tactics. Biden was caught on a hot mic telling fellow leaders that ‘China was testing us all across the region on several fronts’ and Xi Jinping was ‘looking to buy diplomatic space to aggressively pursue China’s interest’. Not a revelation, but the comments showed the urgency of the moment.
Quad leaders announced plans to launch a first-ever ‘Quad-at-sea’ observer mission in 2025 to improve interoperability. The coast guard of India, Japan and Australia will spend time on a US coast guard vessel operating in the Indo-Pacific with more missions on the horizon.
South Asia expert Lisa Curtis called it ‘the most significant announcement’ at a time of ‘unprecedented Chinese maritime aggression’. It sends ‘an unmistakable message to Beijing’ that the Quad will take ‘tangible steps to protect freedom of the seaways’.The language of the Wilmington Declaration was tougher than before. It pinpointed recent Chinese aggressions without naming China. The opening paras were studded with words like ‘condemn’, ‘coercion’, ‘destabilising’ and ‘dangerous’.Sharper language came with sharper tools of new tech and data for better maritime domain awareness for regional partners. India will host the first training workshop next year on how to maximise these tools and deter illegal activity.
The Quad today is more strategically aligned as it delivers results and gets institutionalised while maintaining flexibility. In three-and-a-half years, the Biden administration has run with the ball, first raising the Quad to the leaders’ level, and then aligning the four bureaucracies to think and act together. India, Japan and Australia clearly agreed on the strategic objective since all have their own China problem.
On the India-US bilateral front, the term ‘trusted partners’ got a serious boost with a historic agreement to establish a semiconductor fabrication plant called Shakti (of course) in India that will supply chips to the US military. The fab with clear national security implications will make infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide chips for use in advanced sensors, night vision equipment and military communication, among other sensitive domains.
India’s quest to create a semiconductor ecosystem is getting real, thanks to GoI support, innovative policies and talent of Indian startups. Breakthroughs have come thanks to the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) headed by the two NSAs.
Towering above all is the willingness of the US defence establishment to share something that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. In this case, the US Space Force forged a partnership with two Indian startups (3rdiTech and Bharat Semi) to help India make a giant leap from design to manufacturing. As foreign secretary Vikram Misri noted, ‘Indian startups can actually make a global mark’ with the right alignment of stars and incentives.
Modi also made time to connect with the diaspora as he usually does, telling a gathering of 10,000 Indian Americans they were ‘brand ambassadors’. He promised to move with three times more energy in his third term as India’s influence grows on the world stage.
Talking of influence, it seems he may be doing his bit to initiate a peace process between Russia and Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy was expected to meet Modi on Monday evening amid speculation that ‘something is happening’ as war fatigue sets in on both sides. Indian diplomats were mum. But hints of discreet activity are discernable given Modi’s visits to Russia, Ukraine and now the US.
Meetings that may not happen are with the two presidential candidates – Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, even though the former prez had announced he was meeting Modi. Harris’ schedule was impossible given the pressure of campaigning. Meeting one and not the other was a political hazard.