Just a few months ago, Narendra Modi was a persona non grata in the US. It was indeed somewhat ironic and perhaps height of arrogance, that the most advanced democracy in the world was not prepared to grant a visa to Narendra Modi, a high profile Chief Minister of a progressive state in the largest democracy in the world. However, things took a different turn suddenly when John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Delhi end July for what is being widely perceived as an exercise to roll out the red carpet to welcome Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, to the US in September this year for a meeting with President Barack Obama. This volte face only reinforces the old adage that in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests!

John Kerry is the first high- ranking functionary of the US Government to visit India after the NDA Government came into power. His visit was supposedly related to the fifth India-US Strategic Dialogue that began five years ago to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations. Unfortunately, the initiatives in this direction that held considerable promise, have petered out and the relationship between India and the US has been on the wane since the historic and much touted Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Potentially a bonanza for US companies, the civil nuclear agreement seems to have run aground on account of the nuclear liability issues. But this is not the only impediment as Indo-US relations are plagued by a number of other problems namely the recently enacted immigration laws that have given rise to visa restrictions for professionals from India, inconvenient customs procedures in India, allegations of snooping by the US National Security Agency on prominent leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), continuing US backing to Pakistan despite her support to the terror outfits and India’s stand against going along with the Trade Facilitation Agreement at the WTO so as not to jeopardise food security for a sizeable segment of the Indian population regarded as poor.

The US Government has obviously reconciled to the election of the BJP-led Government in India and especially Narendra Modi being at the helm of affairs. The signals emanating from the US Government clearly reflect their desire to shed the baggage of the past and move forward. This spirit is encapsulated in the words of Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal who stated, “We will focus on shared prosperity and strategic convergence—more specifically, how partnership between the US and India can make our countries and the entire global order more prosperous and more secure.”

While John Kerry generated the right political vibes, what was totally absent in his interaction at different levels was the need to foster the relationship between the two nations in the regime of defence. This was made up to some extent by the back-to-back visit to Delhi by Chuck Hagel, the US Defense Secretary, from August 7 to 9, 2014. While the IAF has been able to partially revamp its transport fleet through the foreign military sales programme of the US Government, Hagel’s visit was intended to inspire the Indian Government to provide a fresh impetus to the several long pending transactions related to military hardware such as for the AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, additional P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft, additional C-17 Globemaster III strategic air-lift aircraft, Javelin anti-tank missiles and M-777 Howitzer guns altogether valued at over $10 billion. However, the US Defense Secretary was not quite happy about the policy of the Indian Government of the recently enunciated policy on foreign direct investment in the defence industry. He also expressed apprehension about the bureaucratic impediments that tend to slow down or obstruct defence deals. The Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit to India reiterated the intent of the US to propel the relationship to a new level through engagement in the regime of defence cooperation.

While the representatives of the Indian Government negotiate with their counterparts from the US to put bilateral relations between the two nations on even keel, they need to bear in mind that the stake of the Indian armed forces in the achievement of this objective is very high.