Henry Kissinger advocated strong ties with India under PM Modi

Washington, November 30

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Henry Kissinger, known for his disdain for India’s leadership in the 1970s, has died at the age of 100, but the well-known American statesman and former secretary of state has been advocating stronger US-India ties for the last one decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Considered the architect of the US-China relationship since the early ’70s, Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday. His consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, did not provide a cause of his death.

After Modi became the Prime Minister of India in 2014, Kissinger, also the former US National Security Advisor, has been advocating strong ties with India. In fact, many say, over the past few years he has become a great fan of Prime Minister Modi.

When Modi was here on an Official State Visit in June this year, Kissinger despite not keeping good health, travelled to Washington to listen to Modi’s address at the luncheon at the State Department jointly hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Kissinger was brought in a wheelchair to the historic Benjamin Franklin Room on the seventh floor of the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department. He was greeted at the elevator by US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti.

During the luncheon, the elderly American statesman, whose influence on American national security and foreign policy is seen as immense, patiently listened to the speech of the prime minister and had an interaction with him.

In recent years, Kissinger made his views known to the public on India when he made a fireside appearance in June 2018 along with John Chambers of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) on the occasion of the organisation’s first anniversary. The fireside chat was closed to the press, but those who attended it recollect how strongly he batted for the India-US relationship.

“When I think about India, I admire their strategy,” Kissinger said during a rare appearance in Washington to attend the first annual leadership summit of the USISPF in June 2018.

His ties with India in the 1970s when he was in the administration both as the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State had soured, but before he turned to China, his first preference was India.

It was at his advice that the US Chambers of Commerce in the ’70s established the US India Business Council (USIBC).

As per archival diplomatic conversations, as early as 1972 he had advocated for India and Japan to be the permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Historians say that both Kissinger and then-President Richard Nixon could not have a healthy relationship with the then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and they turned their attention to China. Rest is history, many say.