Beyond symbolism

State visits are often more about symbolism than substance. Although such visits do involve the public signing of agreements by leaders, the complex issues of trade and geopolitics are usually resolved through a sustained process of negotiations by officials and diplomats, with the actual inking of deals providing no more than a symbolic finish to months and often years of hard work behind the scenes. But there are times when personal meetings between leaders can provide critical breakthroughs. What officials cannot achieve, given the constraints, leaders can — by exercise of their executive authority, and their ability to sell the results to domestic constituencies. US President Barack Obama’s second India visit, and his first with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ín power, has provided a clear example of this. It has not only underscored the strengthening bonds of friendship and cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies, but also demonstrated a significant change in the quality of engagement between the two nations, brought about largely by the ability — and willingness — to step outside the choreographed routine of state visits and summit meetings.

It would be a mistake, therefore, to measure the outcome of this visit by the conventional yardstick of deals signed alone, although the agreements reached are not insignificant in themselves. India and the US have agreed to renew a defence pact, jointly produce new defence technologies and equipment, and set up hotlines between the Indian Prime Minister and the US President. The US has also promised to back India’s permanent membership to the UN Security Council and elite global clubs such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement, and the Australia Group. While these measures will certainly help deepen cooperation between the two countries, the most important achievement of the visit was the “breakthrough” on the India-US civil nuclear deal, with the two leaders agreeing to workarounds on the contentious issues of supplier liability in case of accidents, and US demands for the right to track material or equipment used or associated with US-supplied nuclear equipment.

The success of this deal will be measured by whether US investments flow into nuclear energy development in India. And while the broad agreement breaks the logjam, it does not guarantee commercialisation in the form of US companies selling reactors to India. But the visit’s big takeaway is the willingness on both sides to recognise that they can have different interests and pursue common goals at the same time. By not letting either US ties with Pakistan or India’s closeness to Russia become stumbling blocks, and by recognising they have a mutual interest in seeing that there is a balance of power in the Asia-Pacific, Modi and Obama, or really the US and India, have focussed on what they share rather than what divides them. This is certainly worth parading to the rest of the world.

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