Category: India-U.S. Relations

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on the accomplishments of Barack Obama’s fall 2010 visit to India, as well as work the countries still have to do.

As President Barack Obama’s plane headed eastward from New Delhi, he left India on a high. The India-U.S. partnership had been lifted out of the apparent slowdown of the past two years. The marquee announcement that the United States supported India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council had the headline-grabbing quality for which India’s policy watchers hungered.

Obama’s three-day visit produced some real accomplishments that will put more substance into the increasingly important partnership between India and the United States. It also left the two countries with a lot of work to do to realize that potential.

Originally published November 9, 2010 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Commentary. Read the entire article.

An article written by Teresita C. Schaffer on the transformation of the relationship between the United States and India.

Barack Obama’s trip to India this month will have moments of theater and high drama, and undoubtedly will produce an imposing list of “deliverables.” But its most important message is the expanding scope of the India-US partnership. Until late 2009, the Indo-US conversation, and most of the success stories in the new relationship, was confined to bilateral issues. In the past year, the two governments have begun serious conversations about security in Asia. In the coming year, the incipient discussion on global governance will become a major feature of US-India relations. For the first time, the two countries may have the ingredients needed for the strategic partnership both want.

Originally published November 5, 2010 by YaleGlobal.

A report by Teresita C. Schaffer for the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Global Health Policy Center.

This report assesses the impact of U.S. engagement with India’s health sector in the past six decades. The United States’ involvement with health in independent India goes back to the earliest days. The longest involvement is through the U.S. foreign aid program, which has worked primarily with the government of India. Other parts of the United States government have also been involved, chiefly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and both the capacity-building and research activities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Private American institutions have been involved in India, including foundations, universities, and medically oriented businesses, as well as private Americans, including many of Indian origin. In at least one case, the recently founded Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), both the American institution represent public-private collaboration.

Originally published by CSIS in November 2010. Read the entire report.

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on Manmohan Singh’s fall 2009 visit to the United States.

India has become a major bilateral partner. It is the principal power in the Indian Ocean, increasingly a player in Asia-wide political and economic deliberations, with a lively security relationship with the United States. The United States had $61 billion in bilateral goods trade with India in 2007, the most recent available year. Additionally, India exported approximately $19 billion in software and related services to the United States in 2007,  making the United States India’s top trading partner and India a significant trading partner for the United States.

Originally published November 23, 2009 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Critical Questions. Read the entire article.