The United States of America and the Republic of India represent two of Earth’s top ten militaries and economies. Washington and New Delhi have a geopolitical foe that threatens each other’s national security—the People’s Republic of China.

A growing cold war with the rising Chinese state has ensued over the past decade, with India historically battling the nation for the past sixty years. With the potential to mend relations and have an enhanced economic and military partnership, India and the US could benefit from each other’s security. Now is the time to recognize it.

Relations Between India and America

The beginnings of relations between the United States and India date back to the late days of the British Raj. During World War Two, President Franklin D Roosevelt voiced support for Indian independence, despite being allies with the United Kingdom and irritating Churchill at the suggestion. Through India, the US Air Force sent vital aid to Chinese resistance groups against the Japanese occupation and starving Indians during the Bengal Famine.

Post World War Two, President Truman and Eisenhower had policies on decolonization, with India being one of the biggest priorities. Due to the communists pushing out the nationalists to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War, India was seen as a potential alternative and counterweight. Nevertheless, the situation would change as the Cold War became heated and bloody.

Geopolitical Shift in the Cold War

Initially supporting India against Chinese aggression under the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, relations between both nations took a sharp turn concerning Nixon’s rapprochement with China. During the Sino-Soviet split, China and the USSR were in conflict to propel themselves as the one true “revolutionaries.” At times, it resorted to armed conflict, and needing a second front against the Soviets, America gambled on the Chinese.

Secret meetings took place between Henry Kissinger and Mao’s envoys in China to discuss formal relations to contain the USSR in 1970. One of these concessions included America backing Yahya Khan’s military dictatorship of Pakistan, which has been a vassal of China since its independence. Pakistan is also another existential threat to India, and at the time, Kissinger was openly hateful to the latter.

In 1971, Yahya Khan’s Pakistan waged a genocidal war against Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. The Soviet Union condemned the massacres and ethnic cleansing in which up to 3 million civilians were killed by Pakistan’s army and irregulars. In contrast, due to the new pact with China, the United States quietly looked the patient way.