Many commentators, both in the US and India, do not believe that President Barack Obama’s victory and his second-term foreign policy will lead to any surprises to US-India relations. They see more of the same. They should be proven wrong.
Yes, the last four years have been a period of consolidation in India-US relations. They saw incremental improvements that built on the historic transformation of India-US ties over the previous decade. But the next four years hold the potential for major breakthroughs in trade, security, Asian regional cooperation and joint efforts to address global issues, especially climate change and food security.
The conditions for new departures in India-US relations are promising. Indian and US foreign policy interests and outlooks have continued to converge and form the basis for new levels of interaction. Leadership, early attention and persistence will be needed on both sides to achieve far-reaching goals.
looking beyond borders 