India in NATO: The door is open, but…the US ambassador’s statement gave big hints

US Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Military Alliance Julian Smith said the door is open for India to join NATO if the Indian government makes a demand. Smith also said that the two sides had informal exchanges on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue in early March this year. However, he rejected India’s invitation to the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels next week, saying the alliance would first like to know more about India’s interest in a ‘more comprehensive’ alliance.

The Indian government said last year that it was in touch with NATO as part of its initiative to engage with various stakeholders on global issues of mutual interest. However, the informal meeting in March this year was probably the first on Indian soil and took place in the midst of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Unlike US treaty allies such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, India has objections to working with NATO, but feels that there is potential to work with the organization without perhaps engaging in any military cooperation. Smith said that in the past NATO did not have a particularly rich agenda with countries in the Indo-Pacific, but in recent years the alliance had begun to mention the Indo-Pacific in some of its strategic documents and to focus on The importance of was also recognized.