USA India relations since World War II
Here's an interesting Facebook video, https://www.facebook.com/India.usembassy/videos/1414138055368886, around 1 min, dated 12th Aug. 2017, "celebrating 70 years of Indian Independence and 70 years of #USIndiaDosti". [Dosti is the Hindi word for friendship.]
The video has interesting pics of some USA presidents interacting with some Indian Prime Ministers over the decades.
It states, "The United States was the first country to initiate diplomatic relations with independent India in August 1947". I did not know that. I Googled the net to try to confirm the statement but did not get a suitable result. However it led me to some interesting wiki page(s) related to the history of USA India relations.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93United_States_relations (when wiki page is mentioned in this post without a link, it refers to this wiki page):
The relationships between India in the days of the British Raj and the US were thin.
...
In the 1930s and early 1940s the United States gave very strong support to the Indian independence movement in defiance of the British Empire.
...
Everything changed in World War Two, when India became the main base for the American China Burma India Theater (CBI) in the war against Japan. Tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived, bringing all sorts of advanced technology, and money; they left in 1945. Serious tension erupted over American demands, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that India be given independence, a proposition Prime Minister Winston Churchill vehemently rejected. For years Roosevelt had encouraged Britain's disengagement from India. The American position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, practical concern for the outcome of the war, and the expectation of a large American role in a post-colonial era. ... Churchill threatened to resign if Roosevelt pushed too hard, so Roosevelt backed down.
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: I DID NOT KNOW that "Tens of thousands of American servicemen" had landed in India (probably in North-East India) during World War II. The wiki page has a pic of USA servicemen standing outside a Calcutta/Kolkata shop, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shops_in_Calcutta_in_1945.jpg. Hmm. Neither did I know about USA president Roosevelt "demand"ing Indian independence from UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill but then backing down when Churchill "threatened to resign". I don't think that USA role in India's freedom struggle, rather minor it must be accepted, has been highlighted in Indian school history books at least at the time I was studying school [Class 1 to Class X is referred to as school in India. Class XI onwards is junior college and then college/university.]. My school days were late 1960s to late 70s, at which time the staunch ally of India was the Soviet Union, and USA was the staunch ally of India's arch-rival Pakistan. Perhaps that's why, as far as I can recall, the Maharashtra state school history books then which was what Bombay/Mumbai school students (like me) followed, did not highlight this rather minor USA role in Indian independence struggle. I mean, they may have mentioned it but not given much importance to it.
The wiki page notes that India's policy of non-alignment, which started under Indian PM Pandit Nehru and continued under later PMs including Indira Gandhi, was viewed "negatively" by the USA. It also notes that Pakistan joined the US-led Western Bloc in 1954. The bottom line for the USA then seemed to be whether India is going along with the communists or not. USA did support India with supplies when China attacked India in 1962 but did not involve its armed forces directly in the war. However, it seems to have played a vital role in keeping China from launching another attack against India in the later years. A relevant extract from the wiki:
In a May 1963 National Security Council meeting, the United States discussed contingency planning that could be implemented in the event of another Chinese attack on India. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor advised the president to use nuclear weapons should the Americans intervene in such a situation. Kennedy insisted that Washington defend India as it would any ally, saying, "We should defend India, and therefore we will defend India." Kennedy's ambassador to India was the noted liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who was considered close to India.
--- end extract ---
The wiki page talks about the support that India got from USA presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. An extract related to it is given below:
In 1959, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first US President to visit India to strengthen the staggering ties between the two nations. He was so supportive that the New York Times remarked, "It did not seem to matter much whether Nehru had actually requested or been given a guarantee that the US would help India to meet further Chinese Communist aggression. What mattered was the obvious strengthening of Indian-American friendship to a point where no such guarantee was necessary."
During John F. Kennedy's Presidency (1961–63), India was considered a strategic partner and counterweight to the rise of Communist China. Kennedy said, "Chinese Communists have been moving ahead the last 10 years. India has been making some progress, but if India does not succeed with her 450 million people, if she can't make freedom work, then people around the world are going to determine, particularly in the underdeveloped world, that the only way they can develop their resources is through the Communist system."
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: So India that was recently liberated from the exploitation of British rule, with its huge population and significant land mass, was viewed as a crucial test case of democracy, given that the huge Soviet Union and huge China were communist! And China under full communist rule from 1949, it seems from Kennedy's above comment, was materially progressing faster even then than India! What Kennedy's above remark does not cover, and I don't know whether he has remarked about it elsewhere, is that India, for thousands of years, has been such a religion and God crazy country that the probability of India as a whole, accepting communism with its anti-religion and anti-God ideologies, was very low. Even the British had recognized and respected that during their rule of India. They did not really mess around with religion in India. I don't think the British, on any significant scale, ever tried to impose Christianity through laws & edicts on Indians. The British support for Western Christian missionary activity would have been more of attempts to lure Indians of other religions (including Indian early Christians like the Kerala Saint Thomas Christians) to Western Christianity rather than any forcible conversions, and seems to have limited success given the fact that Christians today make up for around 2 to 3 % of Indian population, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_India.
The wiki page also notes the aid given to India in the initial years after independence by both USA and the Soviet Union. A related extract:
Meanwhile, poor harvests forced India to ask for American aid for its food security, which was given starting in 1950. In the first dozen years of Indian independence (1947–1959), the US provided $1.7 billion in aid, including $931 million in food. The Soviet Union provided about half as much in monetary terms, however made much larger contributions in kind, taking the form of infrastructural aid, soft loans, technical knowledge transfer, economic planning and skills involved in the areas of steel mills, machine building, hydro-electric power and other heavy industries especially nuclear energy and space research. In 1961, the US pledged $1.0 billion in development loans, in addition to $1.3 billion of free food.
--- end extract ---
The wiki page notes that under USA president Richard Nixon Indo-USA relations hit an all-time low. "Relations then hit an all-time low under the Nixon administration in the early 1970s. Richard Nixon shifted away from the neutral stance which his predecessors had taken towards Indo-Pakistani hostilities. He established a very close relationship with Pakistan, aiding it militarily and economically, as India, now under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, was seen as leaning towards the Soviet Union. He considered Pakistan as a very important ally to counter Soviet influence in the Indian subcontinent and establish ties with China, with whom Pakistan was very close. The frosty personal relationship between Nixon and Indira further contributed to the poor relationship between the two nations. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the US openly supported Pakistan and even deployed its aircraft carrier USS Enterprise towards the Bay of Bengal, which was seen as a show of force by the US in support of the beleaguered West Pakistani forces."
[Ravi: The Soviet Union came to India's aid then by sending its battleships and submarines including nuclear submarines. At least one Soviet Union battleship was already in position in the Bay of Bengal before a British aircraft carrier "Eagle" could help Pakistan. And more battleships including nuclear submarines of the Soviet Union were in place before the USA (aircraft) carrier Enterprise and USS Tripoli (of USA 7th fleet, I guess) could arrive there to come to Pakistan's help. The USA battleships (and British aircraft carrier) were forced to change their plan and could not interfere in the India-Pakistan war. Soviet Union also seems to have threatened China which prevented China from executing any plan to attack India from the North to help Pakistan. Note that USA and China seem to have had talks prior to the outbreak of this war, on their common support for Pakistan. Here is one report about this matter: http://www.theworldreporter.com/2011/10/1971-india-pakistan-war-role-of-russia.html. It must also be noted that atrocities committed on Bangladeshis, especially Hindu Bengalis, by West Pakistani forces in Bangladesh from March 1971 onwards led to refugees pouring into India and putting a big burden on India. The eventual war was sparked by a pre-emptive attack from West Pakistan on India on Dec. 3rd 1971 and lasted only 13 days when Pakistani forces in Bangladesh (called East Pakistan then) surrendered to Indian armed forces who had reached its capital, Dacca/Dhaka. Of course, India withdrew from Bangladesh after a proper Bangladeshi government was formed to run the country.]
Ravi: There were ups and downs in US-India relationships afterwards as India conducted its nuclear tests in 1974 (under PM Indira Gandhi) and 1998 (under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee). In 2000, USA President Bill Clinton visited India. The wiki page states, "India emerged in the 21st century as increasingly vital to core US foreign policy interests. India, a dominant actor in its region, and the home of more than one billion citizens, is now often characterised as a nascent Great Power and an "indispensable partner" of the US, one that many analysts view as a potential counterweight to the growing clout of China."
After 2000, USA-India relations have become strong. According to the wiki page, President George W. Bush said, "India is a great example of democracy. It is very devout, has diverse religious heads, but everyone is comfortable about their religion. The world needs India".
Another relevant extract from it: "After the September 11 attacks against the US in 2001, President George W. Bush collaborated closely with India in controlling and policing the strategically critical Indian Ocean sea lanes from the Suez Canal to Singapore."
President Obama continued to promote USA-India ties. From the wiki page:
In November 2010, Obama became the second US President (after Richard Nixon in 1969) to undertake a visit to India in his first term in office. On 8 November, Obama also became the second US President (after Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959) to ever address a joint session of the Parliament of India. In a major policy shift, Obama declared US support for India's permanent membership on the UN Security Council. Calling the India-US relationship "a defining partnership of the 21st century", he also announced the removal of export control restrictions on several Indian companies, and concluded trade deals worth $10 billion, which are expected to create and/or support 50,000 jobs in the US.
...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while visiting the United States [in 2016] addressed a joint session of Congress highlighting the common traits of both democracies and long-term friendship between the two countries. In a speech lasting more than 45 minutes, Mr. Modi drew on parallels between the two countries and addressed a variety of issues where the two countries have worked together in the past and where the future course of action would lie.
...
In January 2017, Peter Lavoy, Senior Director for South Asian Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, declared that the partnership between India and the United States under Barack Obama's administration had been "incredibly successful". Lavoy stated, "I can tell you quite definitively that due to our partnerships, several terrorism plots were foiled. Indian lives and American lives were saved because of this partnership."
--- end extracts ---
The current president of the USA, Donald Trump has said that India has a true friend in the White House (in him), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg51JfFy9ew, 1 min. 32 secs. So under President Trump too, as of now at least, it seems that India-USA relations continue to be strong.
Some other extracts from the wiki page:
In February 2017, Indian ambassador to the U.S. Navtej Sarna hosted a reception for the National Governors Association (NGA), which was attended by the Governors of 25 states and senior representatives of 3 more states. This was the first time such an event has occurred. Explaining the reason for the gathering, Virginia Governor and NGA Chair Terry McAuliffe stated that "India is America's greatest strategic partner". He further added, "We clearly understand the strategic importance of India, of India-US relations. As we grow our 21st century economy, India has been so instrumental in helping us build our technology, medical professions. We recognise a country that has been such a close strategic ally of the US. That's why we the Governors are here tonight." McAuliffe, who has visited India 15 times, also urged other Governors to visit the country with trade delegations to take advantage of opportunities.
...
The United States is one of India's largest direct investors. From 1991 to 2004, the stock of FDI inflow has increased from USD $11.3 million to $344.4 million, and totaling $4.13 billion. This is a compound rate increase of 57.5 percent annually.
...
The US is India's second largest trading partner, and India is its 11th largest trading partner. In 2015, the US exported $21.5 billion worth of goods to India, and imported $44.8 billion worth of Indian goods. Major items imported from India include information technology services, textiles, machinery, gems and diamonds, chemicals, iron and steel products, coffee, tea, and other edible food products. Major American items imported by India include aircraft, fertilisers, computer hardware, scrap metal, and medical equipment.
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: I felt it appropriate to mention that India-USA relations improving by leaps and bounds have not come in the way of India continuing to have good relations with Russia and some other countries of the former Soviet Union. Today, going by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks, I think that India views both the USA and Russia as important friends. And, as an Indian citizen, I fully support such a view. Going by the overall picture, after independence in 1947, India has been helped significantly by both Russia and USA. So my considered view is that India should be grateful for that help from both these countries - USA and Russia (former Soviet Union), in India's rise [resurgence actually, as prior to European conquest of India, India was far richer than these European countries] from an impoverished and exploited colony of Britain seven decades ago, to an important country now, not only in Asia but in the world at large. [As per IMF 2016 data, India has the 7th largest nominal GDP in the world (of US $ 2.25 trillion); Indian military power today is considered to be among the top ten in the world; India is a nuclear weapon state which provides the powerful deterrence against attack by other nuclear weapon states.]
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
The video has interesting pics of some USA presidents interacting with some Indian Prime Ministers over the decades.
It states, "The United States was the first country to initiate diplomatic relations with independent India in August 1947". I did not know that. I Googled the net to try to confirm the statement but did not get a suitable result. However it led me to some interesting wiki page(s) related to the history of USA India relations.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93United_States_relations (when wiki page is mentioned in this post without a link, it refers to this wiki page):
The relationships between India in the days of the British Raj and the US were thin.
...
In the 1930s and early 1940s the United States gave very strong support to the Indian independence movement in defiance of the British Empire.
...
Everything changed in World War Two, when India became the main base for the American China Burma India Theater (CBI) in the war against Japan. Tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived, bringing all sorts of advanced technology, and money; they left in 1945. Serious tension erupted over American demands, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that India be given independence, a proposition Prime Minister Winston Churchill vehemently rejected. For years Roosevelt had encouraged Britain's disengagement from India. The American position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, practical concern for the outcome of the war, and the expectation of a large American role in a post-colonial era. ... Churchill threatened to resign if Roosevelt pushed too hard, so Roosevelt backed down.
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: I DID NOT KNOW that "Tens of thousands of American servicemen" had landed in India (probably in North-East India) during World War II. The wiki page has a pic of USA servicemen standing outside a Calcutta/Kolkata shop, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shops_in_Calcutta_in_1945.jpg. Hmm. Neither did I know about USA president Roosevelt "demand"ing Indian independence from UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill but then backing down when Churchill "threatened to resign". I don't think that USA role in India's freedom struggle, rather minor it must be accepted, has been highlighted in Indian school history books at least at the time I was studying school [Class 1 to Class X is referred to as school in India. Class XI onwards is junior college and then college/university.]. My school days were late 1960s to late 70s, at which time the staunch ally of India was the Soviet Union, and USA was the staunch ally of India's arch-rival Pakistan. Perhaps that's why, as far as I can recall, the Maharashtra state school history books then which was what Bombay/Mumbai school students (like me) followed, did not highlight this rather minor USA role in Indian independence struggle. I mean, they may have mentioned it but not given much importance to it.
The wiki page notes that India's policy of non-alignment, which started under Indian PM Pandit Nehru and continued under later PMs including Indira Gandhi, was viewed "negatively" by the USA. It also notes that Pakistan joined the US-led Western Bloc in 1954. The bottom line for the USA then seemed to be whether India is going along with the communists or not. USA did support India with supplies when China attacked India in 1962 but did not involve its armed forces directly in the war. However, it seems to have played a vital role in keeping China from launching another attack against India in the later years. A relevant extract from the wiki:
In a May 1963 National Security Council meeting, the United States discussed contingency planning that could be implemented in the event of another Chinese attack on India. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor advised the president to use nuclear weapons should the Americans intervene in such a situation. Kennedy insisted that Washington defend India as it would any ally, saying, "We should defend India, and therefore we will defend India." Kennedy's ambassador to India was the noted liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who was considered close to India.
--- end extract ---
The wiki page talks about the support that India got from USA presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. An extract related to it is given below:
In 1959, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first US President to visit India to strengthen the staggering ties between the two nations. He was so supportive that the New York Times remarked, "It did not seem to matter much whether Nehru had actually requested or been given a guarantee that the US would help India to meet further Chinese Communist aggression. What mattered was the obvious strengthening of Indian-American friendship to a point where no such guarantee was necessary."
During John F. Kennedy's Presidency (1961–63), India was considered a strategic partner and counterweight to the rise of Communist China. Kennedy said, "Chinese Communists have been moving ahead the last 10 years. India has been making some progress, but if India does not succeed with her 450 million people, if she can't make freedom work, then people around the world are going to determine, particularly in the underdeveloped world, that the only way they can develop their resources is through the Communist system."
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: So India that was recently liberated from the exploitation of British rule, with its huge population and significant land mass, was viewed as a crucial test case of democracy, given that the huge Soviet Union and huge China were communist! And China under full communist rule from 1949, it seems from Kennedy's above comment, was materially progressing faster even then than India! What Kennedy's above remark does not cover, and I don't know whether he has remarked about it elsewhere, is that India, for thousands of years, has been such a religion and God crazy country that the probability of India as a whole, accepting communism with its anti-religion and anti-God ideologies, was very low. Even the British had recognized and respected that during their rule of India. They did not really mess around with religion in India. I don't think the British, on any significant scale, ever tried to impose Christianity through laws & edicts on Indians. The British support for Western Christian missionary activity would have been more of attempts to lure Indians of other religions (including Indian early Christians like the Kerala Saint Thomas Christians) to Western Christianity rather than any forcible conversions, and seems to have limited success given the fact that Christians today make up for around 2 to 3 % of Indian population, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_India.
The wiki page also notes the aid given to India in the initial years after independence by both USA and the Soviet Union. A related extract:
Meanwhile, poor harvests forced India to ask for American aid for its food security, which was given starting in 1950. In the first dozen years of Indian independence (1947–1959), the US provided $1.7 billion in aid, including $931 million in food. The Soviet Union provided about half as much in monetary terms, however made much larger contributions in kind, taking the form of infrastructural aid, soft loans, technical knowledge transfer, economic planning and skills involved in the areas of steel mills, machine building, hydro-electric power and other heavy industries especially nuclear energy and space research. In 1961, the US pledged $1.0 billion in development loans, in addition to $1.3 billion of free food.
--- end extract ---
The wiki page notes that under USA president Richard Nixon Indo-USA relations hit an all-time low. "Relations then hit an all-time low under the Nixon administration in the early 1970s. Richard Nixon shifted away from the neutral stance which his predecessors had taken towards Indo-Pakistani hostilities. He established a very close relationship with Pakistan, aiding it militarily and economically, as India, now under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, was seen as leaning towards the Soviet Union. He considered Pakistan as a very important ally to counter Soviet influence in the Indian subcontinent and establish ties with China, with whom Pakistan was very close. The frosty personal relationship between Nixon and Indira further contributed to the poor relationship between the two nations. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the US openly supported Pakistan and even deployed its aircraft carrier USS Enterprise towards the Bay of Bengal, which was seen as a show of force by the US in support of the beleaguered West Pakistani forces."
[Ravi: The Soviet Union came to India's aid then by sending its battleships and submarines including nuclear submarines. At least one Soviet Union battleship was already in position in the Bay of Bengal before a British aircraft carrier "Eagle" could help Pakistan. And more battleships including nuclear submarines of the Soviet Union were in place before the USA (aircraft) carrier Enterprise and USS Tripoli (of USA 7th fleet, I guess) could arrive there to come to Pakistan's help. The USA battleships (and British aircraft carrier) were forced to change their plan and could not interfere in the India-Pakistan war. Soviet Union also seems to have threatened China which prevented China from executing any plan to attack India from the North to help Pakistan. Note that USA and China seem to have had talks prior to the outbreak of this war, on their common support for Pakistan. Here is one report about this matter: http://www.theworldreporter.com/2011/10/1971-india-pakistan-war-role-of-russia.html. It must also be noted that atrocities committed on Bangladeshis, especially Hindu Bengalis, by West Pakistani forces in Bangladesh from March 1971 onwards led to refugees pouring into India and putting a big burden on India. The eventual war was sparked by a pre-emptive attack from West Pakistan on India on Dec. 3rd 1971 and lasted only 13 days when Pakistani forces in Bangladesh (called East Pakistan then) surrendered to Indian armed forces who had reached its capital, Dacca/Dhaka. Of course, India withdrew from Bangladesh after a proper Bangladeshi government was formed to run the country.]
Ravi: There were ups and downs in US-India relationships afterwards as India conducted its nuclear tests in 1974 (under PM Indira Gandhi) and 1998 (under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee). In 2000, USA President Bill Clinton visited India. The wiki page states, "India emerged in the 21st century as increasingly vital to core US foreign policy interests. India, a dominant actor in its region, and the home of more than one billion citizens, is now often characterised as a nascent Great Power and an "indispensable partner" of the US, one that many analysts view as a potential counterweight to the growing clout of China."
After 2000, USA-India relations have become strong. According to the wiki page, President George W. Bush said, "India is a great example of democracy. It is very devout, has diverse religious heads, but everyone is comfortable about their religion. The world needs India".
Another relevant extract from it: "After the September 11 attacks against the US in 2001, President George W. Bush collaborated closely with India in controlling and policing the strategically critical Indian Ocean sea lanes from the Suez Canal to Singapore."
President Obama continued to promote USA-India ties. From the wiki page:
In November 2010, Obama became the second US President (after Richard Nixon in 1969) to undertake a visit to India in his first term in office. On 8 November, Obama also became the second US President (after Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959) to ever address a joint session of the Parliament of India. In a major policy shift, Obama declared US support for India's permanent membership on the UN Security Council. Calling the India-US relationship "a defining partnership of the 21st century", he also announced the removal of export control restrictions on several Indian companies, and concluded trade deals worth $10 billion, which are expected to create and/or support 50,000 jobs in the US.
...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while visiting the United States [in 2016] addressed a joint session of Congress highlighting the common traits of both democracies and long-term friendship between the two countries. In a speech lasting more than 45 minutes, Mr. Modi drew on parallels between the two countries and addressed a variety of issues where the two countries have worked together in the past and where the future course of action would lie.
...
In January 2017, Peter Lavoy, Senior Director for South Asian Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, declared that the partnership between India and the United States under Barack Obama's administration had been "incredibly successful". Lavoy stated, "I can tell you quite definitively that due to our partnerships, several terrorism plots were foiled. Indian lives and American lives were saved because of this partnership."
--- end extracts ---
The current president of the USA, Donald Trump has said that India has a true friend in the White House (in him), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg51JfFy9ew, 1 min. 32 secs. So under President Trump too, as of now at least, it seems that India-USA relations continue to be strong.
Some other extracts from the wiki page:
In February 2017, Indian ambassador to the U.S. Navtej Sarna hosted a reception for the National Governors Association (NGA), which was attended by the Governors of 25 states and senior representatives of 3 more states. This was the first time such an event has occurred. Explaining the reason for the gathering, Virginia Governor and NGA Chair Terry McAuliffe stated that "India is America's greatest strategic partner". He further added, "We clearly understand the strategic importance of India, of India-US relations. As we grow our 21st century economy, India has been so instrumental in helping us build our technology, medical professions. We recognise a country that has been such a close strategic ally of the US. That's why we the Governors are here tonight." McAuliffe, who has visited India 15 times, also urged other Governors to visit the country with trade delegations to take advantage of opportunities.
...
The United States is one of India's largest direct investors. From 1991 to 2004, the stock of FDI inflow has increased from USD $11.3 million to $344.4 million, and totaling $4.13 billion. This is a compound rate increase of 57.5 percent annually.
...
The US is India's second largest trading partner, and India is its 11th largest trading partner. In 2015, the US exported $21.5 billion worth of goods to India, and imported $44.8 billion worth of Indian goods. Major items imported from India include information technology services, textiles, machinery, gems and diamonds, chemicals, iron and steel products, coffee, tea, and other edible food products. Major American items imported by India include aircraft, fertilisers, computer hardware, scrap metal, and medical equipment.
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: I felt it appropriate to mention that India-USA relations improving by leaps and bounds have not come in the way of India continuing to have good relations with Russia and some other countries of the former Soviet Union. Today, going by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks, I think that India views both the USA and Russia as important friends. And, as an Indian citizen, I fully support such a view. Going by the overall picture, after independence in 1947, India has been helped significantly by both Russia and USA. So my considered view is that India should be grateful for that help from both these countries - USA and Russia (former Soviet Union), in India's rise [resurgence actually, as prior to European conquest of India, India was far richer than these European countries] from an impoverished and exploited colony of Britain seven decades ago, to an important country now, not only in Asia but in the world at large. [As per IMF 2016 data, India has the 7th largest nominal GDP in the world (of US $ 2.25 trillion); Indian military power today is considered to be among the top ten in the world; India is a nuclear weapon state which provides the powerful deterrence against attack by other nuclear weapon states.]
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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