“Operation to seduce Narendra Modi” is nothing new. But Joe Biden is taking his adulation of India’s prime minister to a new level. Gina Raimondo, Biden’s commerce secretary, recently said Modi’s commitment to the Indian people was “simply indescribable, deep, passionate, real and real”. On Thursday, Modi will be one of the few politicians – Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela before him – to address a joint session of Congress more than once. His state dinner will be the brightest of Biden’s presidency. At this rate, the Indian leader may feel that the United States greatly admires him.
He won’t get any prize for guessing the reason. The thickness of the American red carpet has less to do with Modi’s politics than with India’s geography. No other country has the size or potential to counterbalance China. Kurt Campbell, Biden’s Asia adviser, has often described the U.S.-India relationship as the most important U.S. bilateral relationship. The statement came without any caveats. White House officials resort to standard realist disclaimers when pressed about the latest setbacks to liberal democracy in India.
Granted, there is nothing the US can do to defend India’s secularism or restore what remains of its independent media. That’s a task for the Indians, although at this point it seems a far-fetched one. It is also true that US tsk-tsk may have the opposite effect from its intended effect. Biden quietly dropped his opposition to Modi’s abstention at the UN on Russia’s war with Ukraine because he was only reinforcing India’s apathy. Washington now even sees the benefits of India’s surge in oil imports from Russia. While India is helping Vladimir Putin pay for his wars, it is also capping global oil prices.
However, the United States has found it difficult to convincingly enforce foreign policy realism. Over the next few days, U.S. officials will be tempted to say that India and the United States share common values and are, respectively, the largest and wealthiest democracies in the world. These controversial observations have nothing to do with the reasons for Modi’s warm welcome. If Saudi Arabia switched sides with India, it would be difficult for Washington to resist praising conservative Islam.
Unfortunately it is unnecessary. The global star of foreign policy realism is Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, who insists that we live in a multipolar world of “friend and foe” — neither permanent friend nor permanent enemy. This is a variation on the maxim of Lord Palmerston, de Gaulle, and others throughout history. Jaishankar pursues India’s interests with neither the moralism of his American counterparts nor his Cold War predecessors when India was non-aligned. India’s position on Ukraine is selfish. Jaishankar isn’t pretending otherwise.
There are two problems with America’s sweeping wooing of Modi. The first is that it refutes Biden’s claim that human rights are “central” to his foreign policy. Too many rights are being trampled by Modi – religious freedom is at the forefront. Yet the U.S. State Department has remained silent while it loudly denounces violations by other countries with smaller positions on the global chessboard. This only deepens the cynicism about the gap between what America says and what it does. Such double standards do little to help America’s credibility in an era when the southern hemisphere is at the mercy of others.
The risk is that this sweeping move against China will have the opposite of what Biden wants. Most of the world would rather not have to choose between the US and China. The last thing the global South needs is a zero-sum dilemma. As the recurring quip goes, “The Chinese give us an airport; the Americans give us the lectures”. It looks even worse when preaching is seen as hollow.
The second problem with Biden’s charm offensive is that it misreads how much India needs America. False impression is that India has all the cards. India is more vulnerable to Chinese military action than the US. It shares a 2,100-mile border with China, much of which is disputed, and its military is not an adversary. In a conflict only America can save India. Although China does not pose a direct military threat to the United States, Washington firmly believes that it does not.
There is no doubt that both the United States and India have real fears of an aggressive China. Getting closer is a rational approach. Acting like a beggar to the world’s most ruthless democratic retrogressor — the strongman Donald Trump loves to emulate — is rude and unnecessary. For Modi, it was like a green light.
edward.luce@ft.com