US Defence Strategy Review Carries Implications For India Ties

India-US strategic engagement has evolved considerably since the Cold War era, when India's foreign policy was anchored in Non-Alignment and distance from both US and Soviet blocs. The 1998 nuclear tests and the subsequent civil nuclear cooperation agreement marked a turning point, gradually bringing the two countries into closer security cooperation despite earlier estrangement over non-proliferation disagreements. In 2016, the US designated India a Major Defence Partner, a unique status that eased licensing restrictions on defence technology transfers. This was followed by three foundational agreements, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA, which enabled logistics support, secure communications and geospatial data sharing between the two militaries.

Alongside bilateral cooperation, India has built a web of plurilateral partnerships. The revived Quad, comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia, anchors Indo-Pacific coordination, while the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), launched in 2022, extended cooperation into semiconductors, artificial intelligence and defence co-production. Running through all of this is India's enduring doctrine of strategic autonomy, an evolution of Non-Alignment that allows India to deepen ties with Washington while retaining independent defence and energy relationships, most notably with Russia. This balancing of multiple, even rival, partnerships simultaneously is often described as multi-alignment, and it forms the backdrop against which any new shift in US strategy must be read.