India and the United States have managed to stabilise bilateral ties after a turbulent 2025, but rebuilding trust and restoring the ambition that defined the partnership in recent years will take time, former senior US diplomat Nisha Desai Biswal has said. Speaking from Washington, Biswal said Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent visit to India reinforced ongoing cooperation but did not fundamentally resolve the underlying tensions between the two sides.

What Biswal said on the reset

‘What I would say is, you know, we've seen US-India relations kind of climb back after a very tough 2025,' Biswal said in an interview. ‘And there's been, I think, concerted efforts by both sides to kinda improve the relationship and stabilise the relationship.'

She said Rubio's trip ‘continued that trajectory of ensuring that there is strength and stability in the US India relationship', while cautioning that several areas of concern remain unaddressed.

The Pakistan friction point

Biswal flagged New Delhi's unease over Washington's recalibrated engagement with Islamabad as a sticking point that the latest diplomatic outreach did little to ease.

‘For example, I think that there is some concern in India, you know the US-Pakistan relationship and how the US is engaging with Pakistan. I don't know that Secretary Rubio was able to materially address those concerns,' she said.

Where cooperation is deepening

Despite the friction, Biswal said the foundations of the partnership remain intact, with momentum building across critical minerals, digital technologies and the TRUST partnership.

‘I think that we have deep convergence on the kind of emerging dichotomy in the technology and AI and digital infrastructure space,' she said, adding that the United States, India, Europe and Japan would continue to coordinate on technology, critical supply chains and pharmaceuticals.

Ambition versus aspiration

Biswal pushed back on the idea that recent turbulence had unravelled two decades of progress, but conceded that the ceiling for the relationship has shifted.

‘I would say that it's undone. I would say that, you know, the ambition on how high the relationship can go in the current context, that has changed,' she said. ‘The aspiration is to stabilise the relationship and maintain the things that have been built up and keep those moving forward. But whether the relationship can break new ground, go higher, create more ambition and aspiration, I think that there's some hesitation there and there's some erosion of trust there.'

Trade deal in the final stretch

On trade negotiations, Biswal said both sides were nearing a breakthrough. ‘I do think that they are in the final stretches,' she said. ‘So I'm confident that we'll have a trade agreement in, in the near future.' A first-phase pact, she added, could open the door to broader talks on manufacturing, digital ecosystems and non-tariff barriers.

Biswal served as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs from 2013 to 2017, overseeing the US-India strategic partnership during a period of major expansion. She is currently a partner at The Asia Group, advising on Indo-Pacific geopolitics.

The strategic backdrop

The United States and India have steadily expanded cooperation over the past two decades across defence, trade, critical technologies, energy and people-to-people ties — increasingly viewed in both Washington and New Delhi as a cornerstone of Indo-Pacific stability. Both are also members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), which focuses on a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific amid sharpening strategic competition. The next test of the reset will be whether the trade deal lands — and whether it can rebuild the ambition Biswal says has quietly eroded.