IB93097
India-U.S. Relations
July 29, 2004

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Summary

The end of the Cold War freed India-U.S. relations from the constraints of global bipolarity, but New Delhi-Washington relations continued for a decade to be affected by the burden of history, most notably the longstanding India-Pakistan rivalry. Recent years, however, have witnessed a sea change in bilateral relations, with more positive interactions becoming the norm. India's swift offer of full support for U.S.-led counterterrorism operations after September 2001 was widely viewed as reflective of such change. <p> Continuing U.S. interest in South Asia focuses especially on the historic and ongoing tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, tensions rooted in unfinished business from the 1947 Partition, and competing claims to the former princely state of Kashmir. The United States strongly encourages maintenance of a cease-fire along the Kashmiri Line of Control and continued, substantive dialogue between India and Pakistan. <p> The United States seeks to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in South Asia. Both India and Pakistan have resisted U.S. and international pressure to sign the major nonproliferation treaties. In May 1998, India and Pakistan conducted unannounced nuclear tests that evoked international condemnation. Wideranging sanctions were imposed on both countries as mandated under the Arms Export Control Act, but were lifted through congressional-executive cooperation from 1998-2000. The remaining nuclear sanctions on India (and Pakistan) were removed in October 2001. During 2003, the United States and India engaged in numerous and unprecedented joint military exercises. These continue in 2004, along with discussions on possible sales to India of weapons systems. <p> The United States also has been concerned with human rights issues related to regional dissidence and separatistism in Kashmir, Punjab, and India's Northeast region. Strife in these areas has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, militants, and security forces over the two past decades. Communalism has been another matter of concern, with early 2002 rioting in the Gujarat state resulting in more than 2,000, mostly Muslim, deaths. International human rights groups, as well as Congress and the U.S. State Department, have criticized India for perceived human rights abuses in these areas. <p> The United States supports India's efforts to transform its once quasi-socialist economy through fiscal reform and market opening. Since 1991, India has been taking steps to reduce inflation and the budget deficit, privatize state-owned industries, and reduce tariffs and licensing controls. Coalition governments have kept India on a general path of economic reform, although there continues to be U.S. concern that movement has been slow and inconsistent. Plans to expand U.S.-India hightechnology trade and civilian space and civilian nuclear cooperation have become key bilateral issues in recent years. <p> A Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government had been headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from 1998-2004. National elections in 1999 had decisively ended the historic dominance of the Nehru- Gandhi-led Congress Party, but a surprise Congress resurgence in May 2004 elections brought to power a new left-leaning coalition government led by former Finance Minister and Oxford-educated economist Manmohan Singh, India's first-ever non-Hindu Prime Minister. See also CRS Report RS21589, India: Chronology of Recent Events.

    Related Legislation:
  • S.2158

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