India - US: NSA Jake Sullivan’s Visit
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was in New Delhi from June 17 to 18. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval Monday.
"As the world's two oldest and largest democracies, the United States and India share a unique bond of friendship, and Mr. Sullivan's trip will further deepen the already strong U.S.-India partnership to create a safer and more prosperous Indo-Pacific,” John Kirby, White House National Security Communications Advisor told reporters at his daily news conference Monday.
Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology ( iCET)
Sullivan co-chaired the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, also known as iCET, a landmark partnership to expand strategic cooperation across key technology sectors including space, semiconductors, advanced telecommunications, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, biotechnology and clean energy.
Import of the meetings
The important thing about the meetings writes Jyoti Malhotra (Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune) “is the one that happened before the delegation-level talks — when Doval and Sullivan met without aides, without note-takers or anyone else in the room, for at least 30-40 minutes……But make no mistake. No conversation on critical technologies, known as iCET, or the call on PM Modi or the half-hour meeting between Sullivan and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar would have been as important as this one (note that Kurt Campbell, the US Deputy Secretary of State and America’s top diplomat on China, was also in town).”
The Pannun matter: Some of the conversation “definitely revolved around India’s alleged attempt to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a pro-Khalistan activist in New York. According to the US indictment, Indian national Nikhil Gupta — whom the Czechs gave up to the Americans even as Doval and Sullivan talked in Delhi — was allegedly hired by a co-conspirator called ‘CC-1’, whom The Washington Post recently revealed to be an official of India’s external intelligence agency, R&AW, by the name of Vikram Yadav.”
Sullivan and Doval would have gone all over all the details, “in their own way,” states Malhotra. “Doval is not the type to apologise — no self-respecting intelligence officer ever does, and why should he, pray — but all sides know that in this high-stakes game in which all nations measure one another up for brains, brawn and potential, India is a quarter of a step down today.”
The Russia factor
The more important question today, “is what kind of a relationship does India want from the US — and vice-versa. And then there is the small matter of New Delhi asserting its relationship with Russia, both because it continues to get cheap oil from there — which it not so quietly re-exports to the refineries of Europe, which are desperate for cheap Russian oil they have been prohibited from buying since the Russian war against Ukraine began two years ago — and its continued dependence on Russian weapons. It’s also why, as Delhi has made clear, it is walking the middle path on Ukraine.”
Thus, writes Malhotra ‘it seems more than likely that Modi will travel in October to Kazan in the heart of Russia for the BRICS summit……Modi, sort of, owes it to Vladimir Putin — the PM hasn’t visited Moscow since Putin came to Delhi in December 2021 — and especially since Modi isn’t going to the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, in July. Putin will be in Astana, of course — Kazakhstan is part of Russia’s near-abroad — as will Xi Jinping. But with Chinese troops still sitting on the LAC with India, Modi probably believes it’s better to avoid the avoidable pleasantries.”
From Washington DC to Delhi, via Moscow and Beijing, “the great game is certainly alive and well.”
