How NSA Sullivan is playing his part in charting India-US ties

WASHINGTON: When India’s national security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met his American counterpart, the 46-year old Jake Sullivan, in Washington DC in January to launch the initiative on critical and emerging technologies (ICET), Doval, 78, told Sullivan that he didn’t have much time on his side.

- Prashant Jha

“Jake, we have to deliver on this soon.”

Five months later, as Sullivan arrives in New Delhi to firm up the deliverables for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State visit to the US on June 22, he can tell Doval that he has delivered in quick time. Sullivan has driven the administration’s wider foreign policy, geo-economic approach, Indo-Pacific strategy, and the India policy. And it is because Sullivan, under his boss President Joe Biden’s political direction, has taken ownership of the India issue that Modi’s visit promises to be among most path-breaking visit by an Indian leader to the US in decades.

Sullivan, as a close observer of the bilateral relationship recently put it, may go down in recent American history as the most consequential NSA since Henry Kissinger. But unlike Kissinger, who turned 100 in May, Sullivan’s wider strategic legacy is not tainted. And unlike Kissinger, who appeared to undermine Indian security, Sullivan’s approach is marked by a fundamental commitment to doing all that’s possible to deepen the bilateral relationship and help enhance Indian capabilities.

The wider approach

Sullivan’s proximity and long association with Biden he was NSA to Biden when the latter was VP; (Biden has called him a once-in-a-generation intellect”); his status as NSA that allows him to direct America’s complex maze of government agencies to fall in line; his leadership of a highly capable and focused team at the National Security Council (NSC); his relatively cordial working relationship with other key officials particularly Secretary of state Antony J Blinken, secretary of defense Lloyd Austin, secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo and Central Intelligence Agency chief Bill Burns has placed him in a unique position to lead and execute policy.

This is reflected in four key domains.