US Congress Hails India as Pillar of Global Stability Amid China Competition

Speaking at a fireside chat hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Representative Rich McCormick, co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said the partnership with India is central not only to US interests but to the global order.

"There is no more important friend that we're going to need for the future of not just the United States and India, but for the entire stability of the world, than India," McCormick said.

He warned that the strategic stakes are exceptionally high, particularly amid China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. "If you consider the regional security of the Chinese influence of that sphere, 70 per cent of the trade that goes through that straits there with Taiwan, the commonality we have in the way we look at economics and freedom and advancement of a people," he said.

McCormick described the convergence of the world's oldest democracy and its largest democracy as potentially transformative. "If you unite, which will be two of the three biggest economies in the world in short order... we could literally usher in a new generation of peace that could last 100 years if we do this right," he said.

At the same time, he cautioned that failure would have grave consequences. "Conversely, if we do it wrong, it could be catastrophic... If they start joining up with Russia and China, that will put everything out of balance," he said.

Representative Ami Bera, the longest-serving Indian American member of Congress, stressed that US-India ties have endured across administrations of both parties. "If you go back to the Clinton administration, through the Bush administration, through Obama, to Trump 1.0, to Biden, India's been very key to our whole Indo-Pacific strategy," Bera said.

He emphasised that support for India in Washington is not partisan. "This has not been Democratic or Republican. The caucus is one of the largest caucuses on the hill. And we've got to get this right," he said.

Bera identified Beijing as the primary strategic competitor shaping US thinking. "We know clearly who our adversary is in Beijing. That's going to be the leading competition in the world," he said, adding that new global structures would be built around "like values, democracy, free markets, entrepreneurship."

Both lawmakers said Congress plays a stabilising role regardless of shifts in White House diplomacy. Bera noted that lawmakers recently passed a bipartisan resolution reaffirming the importance of ties with India. "To signal that as a different branch of government, nothing's changed in how Congress sees the importance of this relationship," he said.

McCormick said Congress understands India's domestic priorities, even when differences arise. "Prime Minister Modi is extremely nationalistic in a good way... He wants to bring productivity and expansion and technologies to his country," he said.

He added that while disagreements exist, including over energy and defense sourcing, shared values ultimately prevail. "In the end, I think he understands how important we are because we are like-minded," McCormick said.

The discussion highlighted Congress's view that long-term institutional ties, rather than short-term political fluctuations, will shape the future of US-India relations.

- IANS