ABSTRACT
India and the United States (US) have walked a long way to transform their relationship from estrangement to a new ‘strategic partnership’ at the regional level as well as on the global stage. e path-breaking visit of US President Bill Clinton in March 2000 was instrumental in turning a new leaf in the relationship, earlier marked by mutual misperception, half-hearted economic cooperation and divergent approaches to regional and international security, to the one with promise of, in the words of President Barack Obama, being the ‘de ning relationship of the 21st century’.1 Signi cantly, between the Clinton administration and the Obama administration, the White House was under the control of a Republican administration for eight years. President George W. Bush during his two terms materially altered the nature, content and depth of Indo-US relationship. In other words, the Indo-US strategic partnership in the process of its evolution was guided and supported by both the Democrats and the Republicans, making it one of the rare cases of bipartisan foreign policy initiative by the US government.
