‘Sensitivities over tech transfer will persist for some time to come’
NEW DELHI : Former diplomat and current US-India Business Council (USIBC) chief, Atul Keshap, emphasized the importance of India-US defence cooperation and the need for joint efforts to develop a defence industrial base in India. Keshap, who was the top American diplomat in India in 2020, identified advanced technologies and cybersecurity as target areas for cooperation between the two nations. Additionally, emerging initiatives such as INDUS-X, which seek to boost collaboration among startups, will be a key focus, he said.
Keshap emphasized the need for smoother procurement processes and increased predictability on the part of the Indian government while acknowledging that sensitivities over technology transfer, which remains a key Indian demand that America has struggled to meet, will persist for some time to come. Edited excerpts: I was born in 1971, which was arguably the worst year of US-India relations for a lot of reasons. As a young child, I’d go to India, and I’d see my cousins and my parent’s friends, and I’d hear their conversations.
And the US was viewed in a very negative way by Indians, which surprised me. In the 1990s, when I embarked on my career in diplomacy at a time when US-India relations were not as antagonistic as they were in the ’70s and ’80s. But they weren’t exactly friendly.
And then, there were the nuclear tests in 1998, which resulted in a real crisis in US-India relations. However, there was a complete about-face starting in 2000 with the visit by Bill Clinton in 2000. George Bush and Manmohan Singh decided to cut through all of this legacy build-up of negative feelings with the nuclear deal.
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