‘Not Easy When You Are Most Powerful Country’: Jaishankar On India-US Ties
External affairs minister S Jaishankar said the ties between India and the United States are beyond the politics of the day and starting from Clinton, all 5 US Presidents have been consistent on the subject of the India-US relationship.
Praising Biden’s presidency, Jaishankar said it is not easy when you are the most powerful country, and he also clarified that he did not say this in any disrespectful way. One of the reasons the Quad is working effectively is the United States — the US is showing flexibility and understanding, Jaishankar said.
The India-US relationship started changing from Clinton’s second term, Jaishankar explained. Referring to his 2000 visit to India, Jaishankar said Clinton started something moving which was taken forward by the following presidents. Terming it interesting, Jaishankar said he couldn’t think of five people more different from each other like Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden but they all have been consistent on ties with India. “When you look at that kind of consistency, you realize that in many ways – this is deeper than the politics of the day, this is structural, where there is a kind of establishment consensus,” Jaishankar said at a discussion with Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
US President Joe Biden, in many other capacities, remained engaged in the development of the US-India relationship and saw it evolve. “There is a larger point about the Biden administration. In one way, the Biden administration is an extraordinarily experienced administration if you look at the Secretary of State, the NSA, and the CIA – these are people who work with multiple organisations – they know the world, and they are not new on the job – if put together you are looking at 100 plus years of experience.”
“Collectively, this is an administration (Biden) which is very determined to get along with the world and is willing to make adjustments – in many ways, to find, maintain and develop partners. And I do not mean it in any ways disrespect — it’s not easy to be if you are the most powerful country in the world — to be necessarily sensitive and necessarily adjusting,” Jaishankar said.