Superficially, the U.S.-India relationship looks like a success. With both countries focused on China, business ties steadily deepening, and U.S.-Pakistan relations in a deep freeze, many of the old obstacles to the relationship have disappeared.
But an intense week of meetings in Bangalore and Delhi with politicians, think tankers, religious leaders and journalists made clear that while Americans and Indians share strategic and economic interests, and we both value democracy, we remain divided by important differences in values and perceptions. Unless managed carefully, these differences could derail U.S.-India cooperation at a critical time.
Americans and Indians often see the same problem in very different ways. India, for example, does not see Russia鈥檚 attack on Ukraine as a threat to world order. While Americans have been disturbed by India鈥檚 continued willingness to buy oil from Russia, Indians resent the West鈥檚 attempt to rally global support for what many here see as a largely Western problem in Ukraine. Pointing out that Europeans scarcely noticed China鈥檚 attacks on Indian frontier posts in 2020, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, last week that 鈥淓urope has to grow out of the mindset that Europe鈥檚 problems are the world鈥檚 problems.鈥�
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