Delivering on the Promise: Advancing US Relations with India

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US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke (L) shakes hands with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee (R) during a meeting in New Delhi on February 16, 2009. (Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)

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Asia Society Task Force Report

An Asia Society Task Force outlines a bold new strategy for the incoming U.S. administration to pursue deeper collaboration with India on global challenges ranging from security and economic growth to climate change, education, agricultural needs, and HIV/AIDS.

As the Obama Administration transitions to power already burdened with global economic crises and two wars, two events underscore India’s importance for US interests: the brutal Mumbai attacks and the financial sector meltdown. The Mumbai attacks reminded Americans of India’s vulnerability to global terrorism, our shared struggle against violent Islamic extremism, and the potential for crisis to rapidly escalate in the region. The financial sector meltdown and the emerging global response showed how India can be a key part of the solution through leadership in global bodies such as the G20.

India matters to virtually every major foreign policy issue that will confront the United States in the years ahead. A broad-based, close relationship with India will thus be necessary to solve complex global challenges, achieve security in the critical South Asian region, reestablish stability in the global economy, and overcome the threat of violent Islamic radicalism which has taken root across the region and in India. The members of this task force believe that the US relationship with India will be among our most important in the future, and will at long last reach its potential for global impact—provided that strong leadership on both sides steers the way.

The new relationship rests on a convergence of US and Indian national interests, and never in our history have they been so closely aligned. With India, we can harness our principles and power together to focus on the urgent interconnected challenges of our shared future: economic stability, expanded trade, the environment and climate change, innovation, nonproliferation, public health, sustainability, and terrorism. Together our two countries will be able to take on some of the most vexing problems facing the world today, and improve the lives and security of our citizens in doing so. But to get there, we must set broad yet realistic goals to be shared by both countries.

This Task Force report, Delivering on the Promise: Advancing U.S. Relations with India, offers goals toward that ambitious agenda for a shared future. The Task Force recommends dramatically enhancing cooperation between both the U.S. and Indian governments and with both countries' private sectors. Tapping into the private sector momentum in the relationship will address the kinds of big problems governments cannot solve alone.

Over the next four years, the Task Force recommends the following priorities for action across two parallel tracks:

Track 1: Strengthening Governmental Ties

Secure India’s leadership in multilateral institutions to provide the US with a constructive partner in global decision making;

Expand cooperation toward economic growth, particularly focusing on financial recovery, trade, and investment—managing our current crisis, concluding the Doha Round or its successor, and completing a bilateral investment treaty;

Expand security cooperation, including a vastly enhanced counterterrorism partnership, expanded consultation on South Asia, stronger maritime cooperation, and new consultation on other key regions of the world;

Bring India into greater dialogue on the future of nonproliferation, including the NPT review conference, and new efforts to achieve global nuclear disarmament.

Track 2: Joint Public-Private Partnerships for Complex Global Challenges

Collaborate on climate change, where our dynamic scientific and high-tech communities could work with our policy experts to craft solutions;

Work toward a Second Green Revolution in India, which will have global impact by profoundly transforming the lives of a quarter of the world’s poor;

Partner on secondary and higher education, where the training requirements for India’s large population exceeds its current capacity, a challenge uniquely suited for linkages with US institutions;

Cooperate in awareness and support of HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in India, the US, and around the world.

The Task Force believes deeply in the vast potential of the U.S. relationship with India. The compatibility of values, strengths, and global visions between the two countries offers a unique context to craft an ambitious agenda for the years ahead—for, unusually among two powers, no intrinsic conflicts of interest between the United States and India. With a new administration in Washington, and national elections in India during the first half of 2009, the Task Force believes that there is an opportunity to deliver on the promise that the world’s two largest democracies have to offer each other, and the world.

Task Force Members
Alyssa Ayres, Director, McLarty Associates (Task Force Director)
Scott R. Bayman, Former President and CEO, GE India; Senior Director, Stonebridge International and Chairman, Stonebridge India
Marshall M. Bouton, President, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Stephen P. Cohen, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Vishakha N. Desai, President, Asia Society
Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
Victor J. Menezes, Senior Advisor, New Silk Route Partners, LLC
Jamie F. Metzl, Executive Vice President, Asia Society
George Rupp, CEO and President, International Rescue Committee; Former President, Columbia University
Teresita Schaffer, Director, South Asia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace