Despite ties with the US, India will maintain strategic autonomy in taking decisions: Former Indian Ambassador to US

Perhaps, the shift happened since 2000. You may recall that after our nuclear test in 1998, the US had severely criticised India and then let the world impose financial and technology-related sanctions on it. But once India had shown the strength to withstand the sanctions, the then US President Bill Clinton mandated his Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to pursue deep discussions with the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. There was talk on strategic challenges, aspirations and convergence. So when Pakistan violated the Line of Control (LoC) in 1999, the US took a firm position in favour of…