US President Barack Obama’s participation in India’s annual Republic Day celebration is rich in symbolism. It is also a major opportunity for Washington and Delhi to reboot their relationship and set ambitious new goals for their strategic and economic partnership.

President Barack Obama’s visit to India to participate in the coming annual Republic Day celebrations is likely to give a second wind to the strategic partnership that failed to meet the expectations raised a decade ago by Washington and Delhi. The historic civil nuclear initiative and a defence cooperation agreement announced by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in mid-2005 generated hopes that the United States and India had finally shed the tag of “estranged democracies”.

Although the relationship has expanded significantly over the last decade, there was a distinct sense by the end of Singh’s tenure that the ties had plateaued. Political ambivalence and bureaucratic recalcitrance in both capitals seemed to prevent the implementation of agreements signed and limit the possibilities for a genuine strategic partnership.

…C. Raja Mohan is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi and an Adjunct Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore and a non-resident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C.).