The U.S. views the Quad (Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue comprising India, the U.S., Japan, and Australia) as a “essential platform,” based on S. Paul Kapur, the highest Trump administration diplomat for the South and Central Asian area.
“… The Quad is a vital platform. It has executed effectively,” Assistant Secretary Kapur informed the U.S. Home International Affairs Subcommittee on South & Central Asia on Wednesday (February 11, 2026), characterising India as an “energetic” and “vital” participant.
The U.S. and India have been trying to broaden defence workout routines and interoperability following the signing of their newest ten-year defence cooperation framework (October 2025), based on Mr. Kapur.
“We even have some potential purchases of weapon methods within the pipeline that may assist India to guard itself higher and guarantee its sovereignty. Additionally (this) will create American jobs (and) be good for each side,” he mentioned.
Along with commerce, the Trump administration was deploying focused funding, diplomacy and defence cooperation to construct strategic capability within the area, as per Mr. Kapur, who drew a causal hyperlink between the latest completion of a U.S.-India commerce deal and contemporary momentum within the relationship.
“Following the commerce framework President Trump reached final week with Prime Minister Modi, we are able to now concentrate on different shared priorities, decreasing boundaries to commerce with one of many largest economies on this planet, and opening the best way to much more fulsome cooperation,” he informed the handful of lawmakers on the listening to in Washington D.C.
Regardless of the uncertainties round commerce, India and the U.S. have been shifting ahead on “most axes” of the connection, based on Mr. Kapur.
Opinion | India-U.S. commerce deal is a blow to India’s strategic autonomy
On vitality, Mr. Kapur mentioned that India had been lowering its purchases of Russian oil and “diversifying away” from it. ”…Which is what we needed them to do,” he added.
“And so they’ve (India) really been shopping for extra U.S. vitality. And that’s, I feel, a promising risk… to substitute some U.S. vitality for the Russian vitality…and shopping for from different locations world wide too, in fact,” he added.
Pakistan-U.S. engaged on crucial mineral assets collectively: Kapur
The Trump administration official characterised Pakistan as “one other vital associate” within the area.
“We’re working along with Pakistan to understand the potential of its critical-mineral assets,” he mentioned, including that vitality and agricultural commerce was increasing and counter-terrorism cooperation was ongoing.
On the February 12 elections in Bangladesh, Mr. Kapur mentioned it was a “great point” and that the U.S. was “very optimistic” about it, because it was about Nepal, which is predicted to carry basic elections in early March.
He characterised the change in Nepal and Bangladesh as “youth actions overthrowing older governments and now creating the chance for democratic participation”.
“So with Nepal, we additionally belief that we’ll have a safe and peaceable … electoral course of, and we’re ready to work with whoever wins,” he mentioned.
At one level within the listening to, Mr. Kapur mentioned {that a} dominant and hostile energy in South Asia was not fascinating for America.
“A hostile energy dominating South Asia might exert coercive leverage over the world financial system. America should forestall this from occurring and preserve the area free and open,” he mentioned, including that the U.S. wanted to cooperate with companions. There have been a number of references to China in the course of the roughly one-hour-long listening to, which additionally uncovered the completely different attitudes throughout Members of Congress in the direction of the Trump administration’s dealing with of the India-U.S. relationship.
In the course of the listening to, Consultant Ami Bera, an Indian American Democrat from California, said that he had been in India on the finish of September 2025, simply after Mr. Trump had imposed a 50% tariff and a $100,000 payment on some H-1B visas. He defined that from the attitude of the U.S. Congress, “nothing had modified” concerning a “three-decade technique” that dates again to President Invoice Clinton.
India strategic piece of puzzle in stabilizing the Indo-Pacific: Ami Bera
“We see India as a strategic piece of the puzzle in stabilising the Indo-Pacific. They (Indians) nonetheless see that. We see the financial relationship,” Mr. Bera mentioned, including that he was “cautiously optimistic” in regards to the commerce deal.
Mr. Kapur agreed that the technique with regard to India had transcended Republican and Democrat administrations.
Mr. Bera requested Mr. Kapur to “push” India to make use of its diplomatic traces of communication with Moscow to help the Trump administration in bringing peace to Ukraine.
India didn’t must “go far afield to assist our (U.S.) strategic pursuits”, based on Mr. Kapur.
“An unbiased, robust, affluent India takes an enormous swath (swathe) of the Indo-Pacific away from China and that’s really a strategic win for us,” he added. Mr. Kapur was responding to Keith Self, a Texas Republican, who had requested what India was doing to counter China’s Belt and Street Initiative.
In the course of the listening to, Mr. Kapur had mentioned the U.S. aim was to not preserve China out of the area however to forestall China or any hegemon from taking up the area or utilizing its coercive leverage over the area.
Rating Member of the committee, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat, requested Mr. Kapur if he thought there have been any preconditions that needed to be addressed earlier than the U.S. agreed to take part within the Quad Leaders Summit. Mr. Kapur didn’t deal with this a part of her query.
Ms. Kamlager-Dove additionally mentioned she was involved that the Quad was talked about simply twice within the 2025 Nationwide Safety Technique of the Trump Administration. (It’s, in impact, talked about solely as soon as within the Technique, in its full type and within the abbreviated type).
India is meant to host the Quad Summit this 12 months.
The Democrat described the 50% tariff on India as inflicting a “unnecessary rupture” in ties that delayed the Quad Summit and “sacrificed many years of painstaking trust-building” between India and the U.S.
She mentioned Mr. Trump insisting he was liable for a ceasefire within the four-day battle between India and Pakistan in Could 2025 and providing to mediate on Kashmir, overshadowed the function of U.S. diplomacy.
Ms. Dove pushed Mr. Kapur on protections for Afghans resettled in the USA and criticised the Trump administration’s insurance policies on Afghanistan and Afghans, specializing in the standing of girls and ladies. Chair of the Committee Invoice Huizenga (Republican) criticised the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, calling {that a} “true betrayal” of America’s Afghan allies.