A U.S. congressional panel will hold a public hearing on December 10 to evaluate the India-U.S. strategic partnership, focusing on defense, economic, and diplomatic developments.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A significant U.S. congressional panel is set to convene a public hearing next week to assess the trajectory of the India-U.S. strategic partnership. This hearing will particularly focus on the evolving defense, economic, and diplomatic dimensions of the relationship.
Titled “The U.S.-India Strategic Partnership: Securing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” the hearing is scheduled for December 10, as announced in an official 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 from prominent analysts who closely monitor India’s expanding role in the Indo-Pacific region.
Among the witnesses slated to testify are Jeff Smith, Director of the Asian Studies Centre at the Heritage Foundation; Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director of ORF America and the son of India’s External Affairs Minister; and Sameer Lalwani, Senior Fellow with the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The hearing aims to delve into various aspects of the India-U.S. partnership, including India’s defense modernization, enhanced military interoperability with the United States, technology cooperation, regional diplomacy, and collaborative efforts to uphold a rules-based Indo-Pacific. This discussion comes at a time when Washington and New Delhi are expanding joint initiatives in critical technologies, maritime domain awareness, and supply-chain diversification.
The India-U.S. partnership has garnered sustained bipartisan interest in Congress, with lawmakers recognizing New Delhi as a crucial pillar of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific. Hearings of this nature provide an essential platform for lawmakers to scrutinize policies, assess challenges, and reinforce long-term commitments to one of America’s most consequential bilateral relationships.
The announcement of this Congressional hearing coincides with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New Delhi for a two-day state visit.
According to IANS, the upcoming hearing underscores the importance of the India-U.S. relationship in the context of global geopolitical dynamics.