Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – In February 2023, a delegation of Hoover Institution fellows led by Condoleezza Rice, the institution’s director and 66th US secretary of state, visited New Delhi for a series of meetings focused on strengthening the US-India relationship across various policy dimensions.
Since becoming director in September 2020, Rice has made expanding research on US-India strategic cooperation a priority for the Hoover Institution. For Rice, in this era of great power competition, the world’s oldest ongoing democracy, the United States, and its largest, India, share similar visions and values and are thus natural partners in leading to solve global challenges.
To this end, Hoover’s Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations aims to broaden engagement between American and Indian leaders; generate research that can provide the basis for sensible policies; and promote broader public understanding of the issues and opportunities shaping the US-India relationship.
Chaired by distinguished visiting fellow and former US ambassador to India David C. Mulford since 2021, the Huntington Strengthening US-India Relations Program has held monthly policy discussions, including a daylong symposium in May 2022 co-presented by Tata Sons, an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai.
During the February 2023 trip to New Delhi, Hoover again partnered with Tata Sons to convene a symposium of leaders across academia, the private sector, and the governments of the United States and India. With Rice and Tata Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran as keynoters, the purpose of the symposium was to identify areas where significant progress can be made, including building strategic alliances; expanding access to critical technologies, minerals, and clean energy resources; boosting security cooperation, especially in space; and enhancing the resilience of global supply chains.
“Many are calling this the ‘Indian Century’ and the need for a strong India-US bilateral relationship has intensified,” said Chandrasekaran. “The Tata-Hoover collaboration is working together to bridge critical policy and partnership gaps when it comes to the US and India, allowing for new ideas and accommodations tailored to a new era.”
“Strengthening US-India engagement is important to securing a more prosperous, secure, and stable world,” Secretary Rice said. “Our visit to New Delhi, and the Hoover Institution’s ongoing partnership with Tata Sons, have generated creative and actionable policy ideas to help us realize this ideal.”
The Hoover delegation also held a briefing at the US Embassy in New Delhi; hosted a reception with the US-India Business Council featuring Rice and council president Atul Keshap, who recently served as the charge d’affaires of the United States mission in India; and made connections with several prominent Delhi-based think tanks, including the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water and the Observer Research Foundation.
Members of the Hoover delegation included Secretary Rice, Tad and Dianne Taube Director; David C. Mulford, distinguished visiting fellow (participating virtually); S. Paul Kapur, visiting fellow; Sumit Ganguly, visiting fellow; Kenneth Juster, former ambassador to India; Admiral James O. Ellis Jr. (US Navy, Ret.), Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow; Joseph Felter, research fellow and director of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation; Arun Majumdar, senior fellow and dean of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability; Dinsha Mistree, research fellow; Raghuram Rajan, senior fellow and former governor of the Reserve Bank of India; John Rivera-Dirks, visiting fellow; Thomas F. Stephenson, former chairman of the board of overseers; and Glenn Tiffert, research fellow.
To learn more about the Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations, click here.
