INDO PACIFIC SECURITY PERSPECTIVES : UNITED STATES-INDIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP 2025: "PAST PEREFECT, FUTURE IMPERFECT"

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

UNITED STATES-INDIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP 2025: "PAST PEREFECT, FUTURE IMPERFECT"

In mid-2025, the US-India Global Comprehensive Strategic Partnership crafted laboriously for 30 years by bipartisan political support in both United States and India under different political dispensations stands washed away by the 'unpredictable but predictable' impulses of US President Trump 20.

The US-India Strategic Partnership in September could be aptly termed as "Past Perfect, Future Imperfect".

President Trump's colossal blunder in castigating and imposing punitive tariffs on India mindless of the US strategic losses is akin to China stabbing Nehru in the back in 1962 for crusading for Communist China.

President Trump virtually stabbed Indian PM Narendra Modi who steered the US-India strategic Partnership to greater geopolitical and strategic heights.

India's 'National Psyche' stood greatly "singed" by China's betrayal of Indian trust. Likewise, in a matter of days India's 'National Psyche' stands "singed" by President Trump's betrayal of India's 'Strategic Trust' spanning 30 years.

Even past top US personages of previous US Administrations have bitterly criticized President Trump for this 'Himalayan Blunder' in jeopardizing the future of US-India Strategic Partnership due to personal pique and a bloated ego.

In terms of future perspectives, the US-India Strategic Partnership stands condemned to an "IMPERFECT FUTURE' even if the Trump Administration indulges in belated damage control. The broken pieces even if joined by strong epoxies by United States cannot hide the 'cracks though joined' of the Strategic Partnership edifice.

Geopolitically, and for reasons of Indian PM Modi's stress on "Multipolarity", India may not snap ties with United States, like it did with China. But to believe that US-India relations will revert to old format of Indian implicit trust in United States is a distant cry.

Concluding, it needs to be stressed that Modi's India 2025 is not the timid India of the Cold War era when India took refuge in 'Non-alignment' policy formulations. Modi's India 2025 is a Global "Geopolitical Heavyweight" and the World's third largest economy, whose Strategic Preferences may tilt the balance-of- power, either side it sways.

United States President Trump and his advisers need to reckon with this strategic reality. India in 2025 brooks no "political patronizing" from any quar

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Dr Subhash Kapila—Academic & Professional Profile

Dr Subhash Kapila is a Graduate of the Royal British Army Staff College.UK.: has a Masters in Defence Science from Madras University with his thesis on ‘India’s Foreign Policy in Far East Asia’ and a Doctorate from Allahabad University with his thesis in 1994 on ‘Asia Pacific Security-2000 AD Perspectives’.

Dr Subhash Kapila combines a rich and varied professional experience of Indian Army (Brigadier) in criteria appointments on Command, Staff and Instructional. Indian Army service encompassed long tenures on India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

Dr Subhash Kaila’s professional exposures also include diplomatic assignments in United States, Japan, South Korea and also official tenures in UK and Bhutan. These years of diplomatic and official assignments afforded deep insights on Asia Pacific security challenges and China-watching from different perches.

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored two books--- ‘China-India Military Confrontation:21^st Century Perspectives’ (2015) and an earlier one on India’s Defence Policies & Strategic Thought-A Comparative Analysis’ (2004)

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored over nearly 2000 Papers on Geopolitical, Foreign Policy and Strategic topics of Major Powers like USA, China, Japan and regional issues of South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Dr Subhash Kapila has presented Papers at international forums in Russia, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam and National and University Seminars in India.

Invited for TV/Radio discussions by CNN, BBC, Pakistan Geo TV and multiple Indian Channels.

INDO PACIFIC REGION—GEOPOLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“Indo Pacific Region encompassing the vast geographical expanse from West Coast of the United States to the Eastern Littoral of Africa on the Indian Ocean and Australia in South Pacific has emerged in recent years as a fulcrum of global security and stability.

Competing security narratives led by the United States and a reactive hardly credible narrative by China challenges foreign policy and security policies directions of Major Powers in the Indo Pacific comprising United States. India, Japan and Australia.

Needless to highlight as so many academic treatises have already done so that Indo Pacific Security Template as a strategic construct and narrative emerged so as a narrative in the last decade generated by fears of China’s not so benign intentions manifested from Himalayan Heights of China Occupied Tibet borders with India to the Western Pacific seas, and more pointedly to the South China Sea where China has indulged in military aggression ad coercive brinkmanship to establish “Full Spectrum Dominance” endangering Indo Pacific Security as a whole.”------------Dr Subhash Kaila’s earlier writings.

“The Indo Pacific has assumed tectonic significance for a wide range of nations affirming their agency in an uncertain world. Far from being an obscure account of of words and maps, the narratives of Indo Pacific nations hands a great dilemma of the 21^st Century: how can other countries respond to a strong and coercive China without resorting to capitulation or conflict.” –Professor Rory Metcalf, Australian National University.

“In this century, the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim which some refer as the Indo Pacific will become the world’s centre of gravity.”---Australian Defence Minister