[JumpCrisscross]

> no US army in India, as opposed to Germany and other EU countries

Washington wants New Delhi for countering China. That’s a longer-term threat than Russia. If the U.S. Navy wanted to cripple India, it would do so by blockade. This energy insecurity is a well-known weakness of India’s; it’s not a coincidence that China has naval ports in Lahore and Sri Lanka. (It’s also why you don’t see Washington lighting up about India’s coal. A coal-burning India is less sensitive to e.g. the PLA Navy disrupting its seaborne crude imports.)

For a cleaner illustration of this trade-off, see Washington twiddling its thumbs while gazing into the distance while Ottawa and New Delhi duke it out.