For several years, Washington has been trying to bring New Delhi back into the Western Defense sphere, in order to potentially contain the rise of Beijing's military power, a rise which is becoming more pronounced each year. If cooperation between the two countries had so far been limited to an increase in arms contracts for India, the visit to New Delhi of the American Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, decidedly on all fronts these recent weeks, and Marc Esper, the Secretary of Defense, has made it possible to considerably advance the common front of the United States and India to contain Chinese ambitions in Asia.
Traditionally non-aligned since its independence, India had always taken care to maintain good relations with all its partners, including the United States. But following Moscow's intervention during the Sino-Indian war of 1962 to stop Chinese aggression, New Delhi had maintained a certain Soviet tropism, very visible in its arms contracts, while balancing the situation with numerous Defense equipment contracts with France and Great Britain, the former colonial power. But in recent years, and particularly since the nationalist Narendra Modi came to power, the Indian authorities have largely opened up to imports of US defense equipment , which went from almost 0 to more than $15 billion in just a little while. more than 10 years.
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