NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30 (RIA Novosti) – Stronger relations between the United States and India would increase New Delhi's bargaining power with regional heavyweights, such as China, analyst Ashley Tellis told RIA Novosti.
"The US ardently supports India"s rise because its success as a powerful democracy would help transform the greater South Asian region and constrain growing Chinese power," said Tellis, a South Asia expert at The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank.
"Robust ties with the US would deepen Indian security, facilitate its embrace in the wider Indo-Pacific region, and increase its bargaining capacity with rivals such as China."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama met in Washington on Tuesday for talks on security, climate change and boosting trade between the two nations from $100 billion to an ambitious goal of $500 billion.
"Both Modi and Obama are intensely composed individuals, and both are relentlessly purposeful — but both are also deeply charismatic and can be charming to a fault," said Tellis. "Building a foundation on personal respect and taking the first steps toward friendship will yield benefits for both leaders individually as well as rewards that go beyond the private."
Relations between New Delhi and Washington have suffered setbacks, including a row over the strip-searching of an Indian woman diplomat in New York in 2013 and a decision to deny Modi's US visa request in 2005, before he was elected prime minister in May.
