The number of people of Indian origin in the United States is not small. There are more than 5.2 million of them; they are the largest after Mexican-Americans. In US elections, Democratic Party candidates traditionally get the votes of Indian-origin voters. But this time the picture is different.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi developed a close relationship with Donald Trump when he was the US president. Modi was also one of the first world leaders to congratulate Joe Biden after he was elected as the president in the 2020 election.
Chetigi Vajpayee, a senior research fellow for South Asia at the Asia-Pacific Program at the UK-based think tank Chatham House, said, “I don’t think Modi has a strong preference for one candidate over the other in this election. There is a high degree of bilateral consensus on deepening Washington’s relations with India. They see India as a long-term strategic partner. The reason for this consensus may be that the US considers China a long-term strategic adversary. Vajpayee wrote an article on this subject. There, he said that the United States is connected to India on three main foundations. That is – India is the world’s largest democracy, the United States sees India as a bulwark against China, and India’s potential economy.
Vajpayee said that when Trump was president in his first term, he was very close to Modi. On the other hand, if Kamala Harris is elected president, she will continue the current Biden administration. It is worth noting that under Biden, the US-India relationship has deepened in the defense, technology and economic sectors. Despite not being a formal military ally and India being dependent on Russian military assistance, Biden has made India a ‘Major Defense Partner’. In May 2022, the Quad Summit was held in Tokyo. During this, India and the United States announced the ‘Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies’. Its aim is to increase artificial intelligence or AI cooperation. Increase quantum computing and other technological assistance. On the other hand, Trump called Modi ‘fantastic’. At the same time, he called India an abuser of import duties.
