US Congress Panel to Evaluate India Ties and Indo-Pacific Strategy Amid Putin’s High-Profile Visit to New Delhi

A key US congressional panel will convene a public hearing next week to assess the trajectory of the India–US strategic partnership, with particular attention to the evolving defence, economic, and diplomatic contours of the relationship.

The hearing, titled “The US–India Strategic Partnership: Securing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” has been scheduled for December 10, according to an official hearing notice from the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on South and Central Asia.

Chaired by Congressman Bill Huizenga of Michigan, the subcommittee will hear testimony from leading analysts who track India’s expanding role in the Indo-Pacific.

The announced witnesses include Jeff Smith, Director of the Asian Studies Centre at the Heritage Foundation; Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director of ORF America; and Sameer Lalwani, Senior Fellow with the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The hearing is expected to examine India’s defence modernisation, deepening military interoperability with the United States, technology cooperation, regional diplomacy, and shared efforts to ensure a rules-based Indo-Pacific.

It comes as Washington and New Delhi expand joint initiatives in critical technologies, maritime domain awareness, and supply-chain diversification.

The India–US partnership has drawn sustained bipartisan interest in Congress, with lawmakers viewing New Delhi as a central pillar of US strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

Hearings of this nature provide lawmakers an opportunity to scrutinise policy, assess challenges, and reinforce long-term commitments to one of America’s most consequential bilateral relationships.

Announcement of Congressional hearing comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi for a two-day summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The three witnesses, Jeff Smith, Dhruva Jaishankar and Sameer Lalwani are well-known Indian experts based in the American Capital.

In recent years, both countries have also intensified cooperation under the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which has created new avenues for collaboration in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, semiconductors, and defence innovation.

The Indo-Pacific focus has further elevated India’s importance in Washington across diplomatic, security, and supply-chain frameworks.

 

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[Pirthpall Sekhon]

It will be interesting how Trump will pressure Jeff Smith, Dhruva Jaishankar and Sameer Lalwani into upgrading his report card in this critical area of USA security. American lives and economic future depends upon the area.
As for PM Modi this is just a working visit by President Putin. Lives are being lost on both sides of the war in Ukraine. No breakthrough in peace negotiations has born any fruit and it looks likely Mr. Modi will have to work overtime in stopping this war. I would suggest inviting President Zelensky of Ukraine as a follow-up to this movement by the Russians and all humanity will be praying for the end to the war.