NEW DELHI (TIP): Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia, US Ambassador Eric Garcetti described the US-India defense partnership as the most consequential, but went on suggest that the relationship couldn’t be taken for granted and efforts were needed to maintain it, as was the case in a marriage.

I know India likes its strategic autonomy and I respect that. But in times of conflict, there is no such thing as strategic autonomy. “Don’t take the relationship for granted, but enjoy it every day. Pay something into it. It’s like a marriage. Let’s listen to each other in this relationship,” the Ambassador said at a dialogue on “Deliverables to deliveries”, supported by the US State Department and the United Services Institution, a think-tank. The two-day event is titled “Stories of US-India Defense and Security Partnership”.

Garcetti also spoke on India’s strategic autonomy, saying, “I know India likes its strategic autonomy and I respect that. But in times of conflict, there is no such thing as strategic autonomy.” Though he did not elaborate, the hint was clear the US no longer wanted India to maintain a neutral approach on international matters, including the Russia-Ukraine and the West Asia conflicts.

In an obvious reference to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the US Ambassador said, “We are interconnected in the world. No war is distant anymore and we must not just stand for peace. We must take concrete actions to ensure that war machines of those not abiding by peace rules cannot continue unabated.”

“In times of crisis, we will need to trust each other and act together… we need to be known to each other’s systems and also know each other as humans. The US and India have to act together… take stand in principle against war,” he said. “Increasingly, we are not like two countries with two different cultures. We are two countries with one heart. The US and India together are an unstoppable force… India is now the number one US partner for doing military exercises.”

Garcetti mentioned how the Malabar exercise off the Australian coast was like the Quad coming together in a strategic partnership to uphold a “rules-based order”. The Quad comprises India, US, Japan and Australia and the phrase “rules based order” is used in diplomatic terms to question China’s claims over the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

“The US-India defense partnership stands among the most consequential in the world. My Commander-in-Chief and President Joe Biden asked me to take this position (in India). This is the most important country in the world,” he said.

Over the past three years, he said, countries had been witnessed ignoring sovereign borders. “I don’t have to remind India how important borders are,” he said, in an obvious reference to the ongoing military standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control. “The central principle is for peace in our world. I come here not to teach and preach or to lecture… always to listen and learn… also to remind us of those commonly shared values,” the Ambassador added.