US, India relationship not just bipartisan, it is enduring: Condoleezza Rice

Washington: The relationship between India and the United States is not just bipartisan, it is enduring as well, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said, asserting that whoever comes to power next year, would realize that this is the most important relationship.

Rice, who is currently Director of the prestigious Hoover Institution, made the remarks during the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) Summit in Stanford this week hosted by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), in collaboration with Stanford University's Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation and the Hoover Institution.

"The US-India relationship is not just bipartisan, it is enduring. Whoever occupies the White House in January 2025, will realize, that this is the most important relationship,” she said.

"There is so much potential for cooperation between the United States and India in defence, interoperability, and technology partnerships. There is a lot of work we can do on the defence capability side,” said Rice, who served as the secretary of state from 2005 to 2009.

The two-day event on September 9-10 brought together leading defence policymakers from Washington and New Delhi with a central focus on strengthening defence and advanced technology innovative partnerships, according to a media release.

Sharing the dais with Rice, chairman of USISPF John Chambers echoed her optimism and belief in the relationship and said, "I’ve been the biggest bull on India for decades. You can see the opportunity of two countries who think alike and the creativity and innovation coming together."

"I think it will not just be the defining relationship for the next century, I think it will be one that will define the pace of innovation for the world, be inclusive in that innovation, and how the relationship could change the standard of living for every person in India and for every person in the US,” Chambers said.

Kurt Campbell, the Deputy Secretary of State, said that extending America's partnership with India is one of the most strategically important efforts we have taken in the Biden-Harris administration." Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s successful state visit in 2023, he said, "From the stars to the sea, no corner of human enterprise is untouched by the cutting-edge work we are doing together.

Successive administrations, in Washington and New Delhi, have invested time and political capital to bring this partnership to greater and greater heights. But in the last year, I would like to say, our partnership has reached “escape velocity. Today our countries are more closely aligned than ever before." Gen. Stephen N Whiting, Commander of the United States Space Command, spoke about deeper US-India collaboration in the space sector.

"At US Space Command, we like to say that space is a team sport. Given the vastness of space and its criticality to societies, no one country, no one command, service, department, agency or company can achieve what needs to be done in space by itself. That is why we employ a joint, combined, partnered approach to space operations,” he said.

"Our relationship with India is a key component of this approach. Since 2019, we have signed a space data-sharing agreement with the government of India, focused on the safety of space flight and space domain awareness services and information. We have also signed agreements with three India-based commercial companies,” Gen Whiting said.

In his remarks, he highlighted how US-India cooperation under the initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), has brought about closer space cooperation between respective space agencies in NASA, and ISRO and called to build up on the existing space cooperation.

The INDUS-X initiative is spearheaded by the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) from the Indian Ministry of Defence, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) from the US Department of Defence.

At the summit, IDEX and DIU signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), along with the release of the “INDUS-X Impact Report — A Year of Breakthroughs” authored by Vikram Singh and Sameer Lalwani from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

The summit also included the book launch of “Unit X”, authored by Raj Shah, Managing Partner of Shield Capital and former director of the Pentagon’s Defence Innovation Unit.  As many as 25 defence and aerospace startups from both countries showcased their cutting-edge technologies and innovations and presented them to investors, VCs, and officials.