Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The peoples of the United States and India have a long history of friendship and the interests of the peoples of the United States, India, and the rest of the world will benefit from a stronger United States-India partnership. President Clinton’s historic visit to India in March 2000 and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s reciprocal visit to the United States in September 2000 served as a key platform for the growth of the United States-India partnership.
Leaders in both countries belonging to both major political parties have prioritized the United States-India relationship including United States Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Indian Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. The November 2001 agreement establishing a strategic partnership between India and the United States was an inflection point in the United States-India relationship. The January 2004 formation of the Next Steps in the Strategic Partnership with India
(NSSP)maintained forward momentum in the United States-India relationship and expanded cooperation in civilian nuclear activities, space programs, and high-technology trade. The agreement to conclude the path-breaking Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Initiative
(CNCI)was a key outcome of the NSSP and served as notification of the end of a cold war era in the United States-India relationship. The rise of a democratic India as an Indo-Pacific power is in the national security, political, and economic interest of the United States. United States-India security cooperation has helped promote India’s role as a security provider in the Indian Ocean region with direct benefit to the United States and other countries, such as Yemen, where in April 2015 the Government of India assisted in evacuating United States citizens from the country. India has become an instrumental partner in delivering humanitarian and disaster relief in the Asia-Pacific region, including following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and in the aftermath of the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, where the Indian Air Force used United States-origin C–130 and C–17 aircraft to evacuate Indian, American, and third-country nationals and send relief supplies. Since 2002, the United States and India have held a series of increasingly complex combined bilateral exercises involving all military services. Such engagement has been a key aspect of United States-India relations in recent years—India now conducts more exercises and personnel exchanges with the United States than with any other country. The June 2015 renewal of a ten-year defense framework agreement meant to expand bilateral security cooperation demonstrates the continued growth of the defense cooperation between India and the United States. As a result of the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, established in 2012, United States and Indian businesses have partnered on the codevelopment of defense equipment, establishing a base from which to launch codevelopment and coproduction efforts in the future and expand India’s defense industrial base. Two-way trade between India and the United States continues to expand, supporting thousands of United States jobs, and has in only a decade nearly tripled from $36 billion in 2005 to over $107 billion in 2015. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC)regional economic forum supports sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. India’s geography provides an avenue for continued trade and investment partnerships with APEC member states. India became an APEC observer in November 2011 at the invitation of the United States, and India’s achieving full membership furthers regional economic integration and is in the interest of the United States. India’s Look East, Act East strategy to expand economic engagement with East and Southeast Asia demonstrates its effort to pursue external oriented, market-driven economic policies and aligns very closely with the United States strategy to rebalance its Asia Pacific Strategy. India is the world’s seventh largest economy in nominal terms and the third largest economy based on purchasing-power parity. A significant number of Indian nationals contribute, according to some estimates, upwards of $1,000,000,000 into the Social Security system of the United States. The United States and India have made tremendous strides in science and technology collaboration, including in the Moon and Mars exploration, high-energy physics, and in joint efforts to develop a High Intensity Superconducting proton accelerator.