Bangladesh, July 25 -- Volumes have been written to depict the current state of India- U.S. defence cooperation as highly advanced. After Indias Defence Minister Rajnath Singh signed with his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth the “Framework for the U.S.-India Major Defence Partnership last year, he described this partnership as “critical for ensuring a free, open and rules-bound Indo- Pacific region.” One, however, finds the reality in the matter is hardly satisfactory.

There has been a sea-change in Washingtons Indo-Pacific policy in the recent past. During its first term in the White House, the President Donald J. Trump administration in Washington would emphasize the goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific. In contrast, its...