2012: Year of bipartisan US support for India

WASHINGTON: Though no spectacular movement marked the Indo-US ties in 2012, the election year here stood for continuity and consensus over the growing relationship with India, which was described as a "lynchpin" in the new American defence strategy for the Asia Pacific region.

While America gave Barack Obama another four years in the White House, the core policy behind the now strategic level ties with India would hardly have seen a change even if a Republican administration had been sworn in.

Such was the consensus in the American polity over maintaining ties with India that this was one of the very few policy areas Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney agreed on during a bitter election battle.

The year saw Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta visit India for high level talks, with the latter describing India as a "lynchpin" for America's new defence posture in the region where a rising China has changed the dynamics in the past few years.

"India is one of the largest and most dynamic countries in the region and the world, with one of the most capable militaries," Panetta said while noting that the US was developing a new defence strategy.

Even as they engaged in a bitter battle over various foreign policy issues, both Obama and Romney shared a common ground when it came to the US policy of support towards India.

"I think this (India) is an area where we've had a lot of, frankly, continuity and bipartisan support. India is an important security partner today," said Michele Flournoy, co-chair of the National Security Advisory Committee of the US President's 'Obama for America' campaign.

However, there was no visible movement on the implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal that was once touted as the game changer in bilateral ties