Indian PM Narendra Modi is riding high. His triumphant visit to Washington, which featured a state dinner at the White House and a rare second address to a joint session of Congress, appears to mark a new chapter in the relationship between India and the United States.

Modi’s visit was preceded by several major breakthroughs, including the recent US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, which seeks to foster bilateral collaboration on technologies. US semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology recently announced that it plans to invest $825 million in a new chip assembly and testing facility in India.

The US and India have also unveiled several defence agreements, which have not been previously extended to a country that is not formally an ally and highlight the intensifying bilateral defence partnership.

The US’ preference for alliances with anti-communist regimes led the US to establish relationships with a series of increasingly Islamist dictatorships in Pakistan. Meanwhile, India’s non-aligned democracy gravitated towards the secular Soviet Union. Non-alignment was not well-received in the US, where President Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of State John Foster Dulles famously declared that “neutrality between good and evil is itself evil.”

The end of the Cold War, together with the reorientation of India’s foreign policy and its integration into the global economy, led to improvement in US-India relations, but India’s detonation of a nuclear device in 1998 triggered US-led economic sanctions. President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in 2000, his final year in office, marked a major turning point, and George W Bush’s administration built on the momentum by signing a defence agreement with India in 2005 and a landmark accord on civil nuclear cooperation in 2008. The positive trend persisted under both Obama and Trump, and now appears to have reached a zenith under President Biden.

Today, the US seems much more willing to accommodate India’s post-colonial obsession with strategic autonomy. This shift has been partly driven by China’s geopolitical assertiveness under President Xi Jinping, which represents a radical departure from his predecessors’ adherence to the doctrine of China’s “peaceful rise.” The US clearly views China as its primary adversary and has been actively pursuing regional alliances to counter its growing influence.

India has traditionally been reluctant to pick sides, but China’s repeated encroachments on its territory across the disputed Himalayan border, and its killing of 20 Indian soldiers in June 2020, have rendered neutrality untenable. While India maintains its independent posture, the recent G7 summit in Hiroshima notably included the second-ever in-person Quad summit between Biden, Modi, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, and Australian PM Anthony Albanese.

The message to China is clear. While India maintains that it is not a US ally (but a partner), it has increasingly aligned itself with the democratic West in its escalating rivalry with communist China.

But it would be a mistake to view India-US relations solely through a Chinese lens. The US and India have far more in common than is generally acknowledged: democracy, a common language, and dedication to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

The most important factor contributing to the deepening ties between the US and India is the growing number of Indian-Americans, which exceeds four million. Indian-Americans are disproportionately affluent, with the highest median income of any US ethnic group, including Whites. They are also becoming an increasingly influential voting bloc, and their prominent roles in political fundraising, on Congressional staffs, and in government offices have given rise to a so-called Samosa Caucus. The US has had two governors and seven members of Congress of Indian heritage. US Vice-President Kamala Harris’s mother is Indian, and Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley – currently running for president – is the daughter of Punjabi Sikh parents.

In the past, it was often said that Pakistan was a US ally but not a friend, while India was a friend but not an ally. With the US out of Afghanistan, Pakistan has become a less significant ally. But while India still isn’t one, owing to its insistence on strategic autonomy, even US sceptics who say the two countries’ interests are more aligned than their values concede that those interests warrant closer cooperation. Modi’s visit was one more indication of how close that cooperation has become.