India, Afghanistan, South Asia: World of difference between Trump and Biden

The Biden Presidency Worries India

8 NOVEMBER, 2020
From the Indian perspective, the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency becomes a moment of ‘memory mixing with desire’, to borrow from TS Eliot’s famous words from The Waste Land.
Prima facie, there is hardly anything to choose between the Democrats and Republicans in their attitude toward India. There is a ‘bipartisan consensus’ in the US as regards India. But then, there is a world of difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The Indian analysts barely hide an inchoate apprehension that Biden presidency may come down hard on Modi government on its human rights record. There is an institutional memory in Washington as to how far India can be pushed — rather, how tenaciously India would hunker down if push comes to shove. India is also vastly experienced in sequestering its core interests from external interference.
Read more at www.thecitizen.in

How a Joe Biden Presidency Could Change U.S.-India Relations

By Anna Purna Kambhampaty and Billy Perrigo
November 7, 2020
The confirmation on Saturday that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States will reshape the nation’s relationship with countries around the world. Biden has pledged that he will restore the U.S.’s “respected leadership on the world stage” and bring together representatives of democracies around the world to “honestly confront the challenge of nations that are backsliding.” This is in stark contrast to President Donald Trump, who for the last four years has taken an isolationist approach to foreign policy and undermined decades-old alliances.
But Trump has forged a few friendships overseas—including with India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the face of a rising China, the two countries have drawn closer together militarily, too. So, for the world’s largest democracy, the stakes are high for the future Biden Administration.
Read more attime.com

India’s understanding of the Quad & Indo-Pacific: Distinct narrative or a flawed one?

By VIVEK MISHRA,UDAYAN DAS
Mar 19, 2019
Perceived as the league of like-minded democracies converging across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Quad, comprising the US, Japan, India and Australia, is symbiotically linked with the geopolitically ascending region, the Indo-Pacific. However, there are more questions than answers regarding structure, intentions and goals of the Quad at this moment, making it difficult for each member of the Quad to align their combined vision of the grouping with that of their individual visions of the Indo-Pacific. This has led to the debate about the need for re-purposing the Quad. In fact, stopgap sub-unions and disengagements at various levels in the Quad have raised questions as to whether the group can transcend into a productive mini-lateral arrangement from a forum of inhibition. The other issue is whether the Quad is capable of creating a potent security framework in the region and if so, then what would such a structure look like? These questions have primarily cropped up because of two factors. First, while the nations have committed to the idea of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, the cohesion is still loosely arranged and has not yet been formalised at the ministerial level.
Read more at www.orfonline.org