With some millstones, US-India strategic partnership likely to thrive under Biden

By Aarti Tikoo Singh New Delhi, Jan 14 : The US-India strategic partnership is likely to continue on the same upward trajectory, albeit with some millstones under Joe Biden’s presidency which will assume office next week on January 20.
Even as outgoing President Donald Trump lost in the November 3, 2020, elections, his broader foreign policy agenda, sans his brashness, has more or less shaped the future agenda for his successors.
Going by Biden’s statements and that of crucial members of his nominated team — Antony Blinken as Secretary of State and William Burns as CIA Director — India is likely to assume the same significance strategically as it enjoyed during the Trump administration.
While Biden during his election campaign bragged about his instrumental role in the India-US nuclear deal and overall support for the India-US partnership under the former Barack Obama administration, Blinken’s view on India is apparent from the positions he assumed through his long career in Washington D.C.
Blinken was National Security Adviser to Biden when he was Vice President and Deputy National Security Advisor to Obama. He also served as Deputy Secretary of State under the same administration.
Widely known to a be a close confidante of Biden, Blinken was his foreign policy adviser to his election campaign. At a Hudson Institute interaction, Blinken last year announced that a Biden presidency would give very high priority to strengthening and deepening relationship with India.