Thank you for that generous introduction, Indrani, and thank you to the Ananta Centre for hosting me here today during my first visit to India as the Under Secretary of War for Policy. It is an honor to be making this visit to a great country that is not only one of the world's ancient civilizations, but also increasingly one of its pivotal strategic actors.
The United States views India with deep respect—as a republic of continental scale, as a nation with a proud strategic tradition, and as a country whose decisions will profoundly shape the future of the Indo-Pacific and the international landscape more broadly. Our two countries of course differ in history, geography, and perspective in important ways. Yet we share something fundamental: a conviction that the future of Asia should be determined by sovereign nations able to chart their own course.
In that vein, today I would like to outline how the United States thinks about our relationship with India in the geopolitical and defense domains. My goal is to lay out a logical, coherent framework that can help guide the defense cooperation between our two proud and independent countries amid tectonic strategic changes. And my contention is that this approach is fundamentally aligned with that of India's – thus both reflecting and forming a firm and durable basis for our partnership.
Let me begin with the context.
We are living through one of the most significant shifts in global power in generations. The Indo-Pacific has become the central theater of international politics, economics, and security. Indian but also American interests and long-term prosperity will be decisively shaped by developments in this region.
In addressing these trends, the United States recognizes a basic reality: no single country can sustain a stable balance of power in Asia. The region is too large, too varied, and too important. Stability will instead depend on the collective contributions of capable states that share an interest in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific. Building on Secretary of War Hegseth's important speeches at Shangri-La last spring and at the Reagan National Defense Forum last December, I laid out our thinking on what this entails at the Sejong Institute in Seoul this past January.
Viewed from this vantage, India's role is indispensable.
India's importance stems not only from its size and economic potential, but also from its geography and strategic position. Your country sits astride the Indian Ocean, which is the connective tissue of the Indo-Pacific. India possesses a long tradition of strategic autonomy and a growing capacity to shape events well beyond its borders. It is the largest republic in the world; its success thus carries profound symbolic and political weight. And it has formidable, self-reliant, and capable military forces, willing and able to shoulder significant security responsibilities.
For all these reasons, the United States sees India not merely as a key partner, but as an essential one in ensuring a long-term favorable balance of power in Asia.
At the same time, we approach our partnership with realism, clarity, and a fair dose of humility. Our assessment of the Indo-American partnership has its roots in practicality – what our President frequently calls common sense. In line with this, our approach to the strategic partnership is interests-based and realistic, shaped by geopolitics and incentives as opposed to gauzy aspirations or detached idealism. We clearly recognize that India has its own interests, its own strategic culture, and its own priorities, and that India is not shy about advancing them.
But that is what we want. As our National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy make clear, the United States wants partnerships with vigorous, self-assured states, not with dependencies. We want key partners that, in resolutely advancing their own interests, will also have the effect of advancing our own.
This is a manifestation of what the National Security Strategy calls flexible realism. By aligning our efforts with those states that are willing and able to advance their own, we thereby can contribute to attaining both of our goals. In that vein, our efforts to cooperate with India are designed not only to collaborate on key issues but also to strengthen and enable your country, precisely in order to promote and sustain a favorable regional balance of power that serves us both.
Fortunately, our perspective and yours are, it seems, deeply aligned.
Minister of External Affairs Dr. Jaishankar has termed India's approach "Bharat First" and its strategic approach "the India Way." Like America First and flexible realism, Bharat First and the India Way emphasize the centrality of a realistic approach to foreign policy, an unabashed willingness to put one's own national priorities first, and a results-oriented mindset about international politics.
To wit, in his seminal 2020 book, Minister Jaishankar emphasized the importance of viewing and developing India's foreign policy "from a hard-headed national perspective" and stressed "the need for greater realism in policy." He contended that "geopolitics and balance of power are the underpinning of international relations." He noted that "India advanced its interests effectively when it made hard-headed assessments of contemporary geopolitics" and called for "an unsentimental audit of Indian foreign policy." He critiqued the panjandrums of the "rules-based international order" and questioned the presumptuous supremacy of the foreign policy establishment of the West, observing that "we are witnessing a return to history rather than an end to it." He affirmed "the enduring appeal of nationalism" and assessed that "a nationalistic foreign policy outlook is likely to approach the world with more confidence and greater realism." And he announced that "creating a stable balance in Asia is India's foremost priority."
From our point of view: Exceptionally well said.
The approach that Minister Jaishankar has laid out resonates deeply with our own on many levels, but most importantly at that of fundamental perspective. Both of us believe that countries must operate with confidence in defending and advancing their own interests – and that that is not only prudent but also right. Both of us believe that foreign policy grounded in concrete national interests creates a stronger and more self-sustaining foundation for cooperation and indeed for peace. Both of us believe that a durable and stable balance of power in Asia is a topmost priority.
As a result, when the United States acts to secure the safety, prosperity, and freedom of the American people, and India acts with equal determination on behalf of the Indian people, our efforts will frequently and materially reinforce one another. At the same time, we do not expect nor require unerring agreement. Rather, we are flexible, looking for areas of agreement where they count most. We recognize that foreign policy should be practical and about results; as Minister Jaishankar wisely advised, the circumstances of today "require flexible arrangements that are customized to the challenge."
In the same vein, it is actually a key strength of the U.S.–India relationship that it rests not on dusty formalities and unchallengeable shibboleths but on a hard-headed, clear-eyed recognition of overlapping interests. Accordingly, as President Trump said to Prime Minister Modi during his visit to Washington, "India and the United States have a special relationship."
This, then, appears to be the broad agreed conceptual framework. Within it, I would highlight several key pillars, framed in the spirit of Minister Jaishankar's admonition that "the key is to develop and sharpen strategic clarity."
First, the United States and India do not need to agree on everything to cooperate effectively. What matters is that our interests and objectives increasingly converge on the most fundamental issues. Differences and even disputes are fully compatible with deepening alignment and cooperation on strategic matters. The roots of our partnership are deeper than optics and more durable than superficial comity; they are, rather, thickly embedded in lasting strategic mutual self-interest.
Both of our countries benefit from an Indo-Pacific in which no power can dominate the region. Both benefit from open trade and national autonomy. These are the concrete, shared interests that form the foundation of our enduring strategic partnership.
Second, we both recognize the strategic centrality of military power for a stable balance in the region, and thus that defense cooperation should enhance real capability rather than be merely totemic or driven by inertia.
In this light, one of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the steady expansion of defense cooperation between the United States and India. As Secretary Hegseth put it, "our defense ties have never been stronger." Coordination between our militaries has grown, exercises have become more complex, information sharing has deepened, regional and global cooperation has become routine, and defense industrial and technology collaboration is taking on new momentum.
The Framework for the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership that Secretary Hegseth and Minister Singh signed in October provides a very strong basis for such progress. To accelerate that momentum, tomorrow Defense Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and I will chair the Defense Policy Group as we look ahead to a critical new decade of our Major Defense Partnership.
Our focus must now be on advancing forward from these important agreements to serve a larger strategic purpose: strengthening the ability of both countries to contribute to a stable balance of power in this vital region.
Because we are focused on results and reality, we are concentrated on capabilities that matter in the Indo-Pacific strategic environment. Our goals should be practical: to ensure that our forces can operate effectively together when our interests align, and in any case to see that India possesses the capabilities necessary to defend its sovereignty and contribute to a favorable regional balance of power.
Following from this, the United States is committed to working with India to hasten and augment cooperation in areas including but not limited to long-range precision fires, resilient logistics, maritime domain awareness, anti-submarine warfare, and advanced technologies.
Third, defense industrial cooperation.
I believe I can say without boasting that America has the world's premier defense industrial base. Even more, under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's visionary leadership, our country is committed to a "national mobilization" of our defense industrial base, as both the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy announce.
India, meantime, is entering the top ranks of global economies and has enormous promise as an industrial and technological powerhouse.
This is a very strong basis for productive and mutually advantageous collaboration.
That is why our Defense Framework calls for our two countries to leverage defense industrial, science, and technology cooperation to enhance our forces' readiness and to jointly develop and produce defense capabilities. The potential for co-production and co-development is great.
At the same time, even as we seek to expand U.S. sales to India, we also recognize that India's ambition to expand its indigenous defense industry is entirely reasonable. A strong domestic industrial base enhances sovereignty and resilience. The United States supports that objective. And India is well on its way. India already boasts an impressive defense industrial base and India's leadership in cutting edge technologies only further helps broaden our defense cooperation.
We are committed to realizing this opportunity and delivering on the goals set forth last year by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi in their landmark joint statement. Such cooperation can strengthen India's capabilities while also building a more resilient network of defense production. This will require persistence and creativity on both sides. Regulatory barriers, bureaucratic inertia, and differences in procurement systems are real challenges. But they are not insurmountable and we should overcome them.
Finally, strategic candor.
Strong partnerships benefit from honesty, respect, and strategic clarity. The truth is that the United States and India will not agree on every issue. Indeed, in precisely that spirit, we can say without embarrassment that India and America have not always been partners or even friendly. Our histories and strategic cultures are different, and our interests will of course at times diverge.
But, as Minister Jaishankar has so eloquently laid out, disagreement need not pose any hindrance to our cooperation. As he noted, in some ways the lack of rigid tradition and expectations means we can be more pragmatic and flexible in designing a mutually essential partnership suited for the coming decades. If we approach our partnership in this spirit of mutual respect, strategic clarity, and flexible realism – or, to use another framing, in the spirit of the India Way – then the prospects for our relationship are propitious indeed.
Allow me to close with a broader reflection.
Throughout history, moments of geopolitical transition have been dangerous. Today is such a time. States inevitably adjust to new realities, sometimes peacefully but often through conflict. The task before us today is to navigate a period of tectonic shifts in a way that preserves our interests and peace.
The United States is prepared for such an era. Contrary to much idle commentary, the United States is not in decline – rather, it is rising under President Trump's leadership. Unfortunately, we cannot confidently say the same for some of our traditional partners, even as we urge them to reinvigorate themselves and seek to help them do so.
India is far different: it is a waxing power. As a result, the United States believes that India will play a central role in ensuring a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. In this context, a strong, confident India is not only good for the Indian people. It is good for Americans as well.
In this context, America's objective is to build a partnership between two great republics that will form critical pillars of maintaining a favorable and stable balance of power in this critical region.
If we succeed, the Indo-Pacific of the coming decades will be defined by an equilibrium in which sovereign nations will prosper, trade, and cooperate. It is one in which the great national aspirations of the peoples of Asia to chart their own courses and to ascend to the highest levels of human prosperity can be fully realized. And it is one in which there will be peace and stability – not founded in naivete or gauzy abstractions like the rules-based international order, but in strength, reason, and hard-nosed collaboration.
That is a vision worthy of the American people. It is a vision, I would humbly submit, also worthy of the Indian people. And it is a vision that our two countries, working together with others across the region, can make a reality.
Thank you very much.