{"id":80944,"date":"2023-07-05T13:45:32","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T03:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=80944"},"modified":"2023-07-05T13:43:20","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T03:43:20","slug":"the-west-needs-to-get-real-about-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-west-needs-to-get-real-about-india\/","title":{"rendered":"The West needs to get real about India"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lately, the West\u2014particularly the United States\u2014has been wooing India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the bling of a monied Indian wedding.<\/p>\n

Last month, Modi was US President Joe Biden\u2019s guest for a full state visit\u2014of which there are usually only a couple year. Modi also addressed Congress for a second time. In so doing, he was among a chosen few\u2014of whom Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela have been the most notable.<\/p>\n

Earlier, when in New Delhi in April, Biden\u2019s commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, included in a paean to Modi words such as \u2018unbelievable\u2019, \u2018indescribable\u2019 and \u2018visionary\u2019.<\/p>\n

Kurt Campbell\u2014the US National Security Council\u2019s most senior figure on Asia\u2014reportedly routinely describes the US\u2013India relationship, without caveats, as America\u2019s most important. This will be news to Japan, the UK and others.<\/p>\n

Modi was a guest at the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in May. He then visited Australia. He has been invited by President Emmanuel Macron to be France\u2019s guest for Bastille Day. The leaders of Italy, Germany and Australia\u2014among others\u2014have all visited India this year.<\/p>\n

Since India became independent, Western dealings with India have had their fits and starts. However, the courtship gathered pace with the so-called nuclear deal concluded between the US and India in 2008, under which the Americans agreed to assist India\u2019s civil nuclear development and to sell the deal internationally\u2014despite the impediment that India was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n

The deal was a turning point in the US\u2013India security relationship and boosted India\u2019s growing status as a major power. A stimulus for the deal was concern in both countries about the rise of China.<\/p>\n

In the past few years, India\u2019s attraction for the West has increased because of its size and wealth. It is now the most populous nation globally, and in purchasing power parity terms has the world\u2019s third highest GDP. Its attraction has grown as concerns about China have multiplied.<\/p>\n

That said, there are three reasons why the West might want to reflect on the ardour of its courtship of India.<\/p>\n

The first is that India\u2019s economic promise\u2014particularly as an eventual rival to China\u2014is overblown.<\/p>\n

Doubts about the extent of India\u2019s promise have been around for a couple of decades\u2014in fact, ever since some commentators started suggesting that India would one day outstrip China.<\/p>\n

These doubts were cogently expressed by Harvard academic Graham Allison in a recent essay in Foreign Policy<\/em>. Allison, inter alia, suggested that we need to reflect on several \u2018inconvenient truths<\/a>\u2019:<\/p>\n