Modi's US Visit Reveals Why India Is America's Crucial Ally In New Geopolitical Order

As India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Washington, D.C. for an official visit, all eyes are turning to President Joe Biden in his efforts to show the world that U.S.-India ties remain strong.

On Thursday, Biden said that the country's relationship with India "will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century," and he may have a point.

India is the world's largest democracy and recently surpassed China as the world's most populous country with 1.4 billion people. While China is facing a massive demographic crisis as its population begins to decline, India is quietly beginning to claim superpower status. Last year, India's GDP surpassed the U.K. as the world's fifth-largest economy.

India is also becoming a strategic ally for any country looking to carve a dominant role in the decades to come.

Keeping China In Check: The U.S. is facing many complex challenges in the geopolitical arena. As the country's unapologetic withdrawal from Afghanistan has blemished its reputation as the global peacekeeper, economies across the globe are exploring alternative currencies to replace the U.S. dollar as the world's dominant trade currency.

Rising tensions with China over the sovereignty of Taiwan, as well as an open competition to control the semiconductor supply chain and other commodities, are pushing the U.S. to expand its list of powerful allies outside the European Union.

Keeping China in check is also an interest of India, where China's ambitions to become the dominant Asian power can hamper its own ability to exert influence across the region.

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The threat of Russia: Meanwhile, Russia's expansion efforts in Ukraine calls for the Biden Administration to strengthen ties with India, a country that has historically enjoyed a good relationship with both the Soviet Union and present day Russia through its nonalignment stance.

India boasts the world's second-largest army by personnel, and its dependency on Russia as one of its main providers of military equipment had Prime Minister Modi taking a very diplomatic approach over the latter's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

However, India is actively looking to reduce its dependence on Russian-made defense equipment, and earlier this month, signed a deal with the U.S. to expand cooperation in arms manufacturing.

Trade between India and Russia reached an all-time high during the 2022-2023 financial year. Modi has failed to criticize Putin or send aid to Ukraine since the invasion became real, although the prime minister has recently stated that “India's position is well known and well understood in the entire world."

"The world has full confidence that India's top-most priority is peace,” he said.

India's influence in the global sphere is also being boosted by its large diaspora. Out of the 280 million immigrants in the world, about 80 million are from Indian origin, making it the largest diaspora in history. In the last few years, individuals with close ties to India attained some of the world's most coveted positions of power. These include Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank; Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet GOOG and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft MSFT, all of whom were born in India, as well as the recently-appointed UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian descent.

Defense and technology are set to dominate the agenda of Modi's visit to the country. On Thursday, Biden welcomed his Indian counterpart with a 21-gun salute, in an effort to show the world that Modi, who's become the most prominent politician in India's recent history, is a friend of the country. Modi has been Prime Minister for over nine years since May 2014. 

Biden and Modi gave a joint press conference on Thursday during which Biden talked about some of the issues being discussed with Modi, which include partnerships on the semiconductor supply chain, telecommunication networks, defense partnerships and further joint military exercises.

However, the visit could serve an even greater purpose as a show of allegiance in a changing world where new structures of power are being defined, and strategic alliances could be the key to guaranteeing economic prosperity.

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