Why the US Needs a Global Center-Right Partnership

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A partnership among countries with shared values, such as the US, India, Israel, Italy, and Japan, could help mitigate challenges worldwide.

Last month’s US-India trade framework agreement has realigned the converging trajectory of the most consequential partnership of the early 21st century. The high stakes call for harnessing the untapped shared cultural and ideological political leanings of Republican and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voters—accentuating faith, family, and nation (FFN)—to sustain political solidarity and tide over episodic policy dissonance between the world’s largest democracies.

Both the US and Indian governments have found, individually and collectively, geostrategic and political convergence with the transformative leaders of Japan, Italy, and Israel. The governments of Sanae Takaichi, Giorgia Meloni, and Benjamin Netanyahu are prioritizing policies aligned with those of the Trump and Modi administrations, which offer invaluable building blocks for catalyzing a long-lasting center-right political coalition pursuing collective and complementary national interests. 

Cultural and ideological bonds constitute resiliency in relations between nations. The converging ideologies of the current US, Indian, Israeli, Italian, and Japanese governments present a timely opportunity to deepen cultural comprehension and solidarity among the five center-right nationalist traditions embedded in their respective dominant faiths. These bonds could play a crucial role in mitigating challenges and discord not only in the Middle East but also across the Transatlantic and Indo-Pacific communities.

International Conservative Ties That Strengthen and Bind

“I am a mother. I am Italian. I am a Christian,” proclaimed Giorgia Meloni in 2019 to become the first female prime minister of Italy and the third longest-serving prime minister in the history of the republic. She is on track to win a successive term in 2027. 

“I am nationalist. I’m patriotic…I am born Hindu…So I’m a Hindu nationalist.” This statement has come to define Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, the second-longest in the history of the world’s largest democracy. Modi has instilled stability and vigour in the Indian polity, which had languished under weak, short-lived, and often-overwhelmed coalition arrangements since 1989. 

Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister and arguably the most straight-talking leader of the free world, recently led a historic landslide victory, securing a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house of the Diet for the conservative LDP, a first since its inception in 1955. She has been forthright in stating that the Chinese hostile takeover of Taiwan would constitute a national security risk for Japan and necessitate a military response. With her new mandate, she will fast-track Japan’s military and intelligence readiness, economic resilience, and security, and promote family values and patriotism. 

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is an avowed Jewish nationalist aggressively promoting Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people.” He is presently engaged in a historic effort to neutralize the local military and terrorist threats to the Israeli people in close consonance with the United States. Labor and Likud-led governments have proudly embraced Israel as a Jewish state while jostling to define the term and consequent national character. 

President Ronald Reagan’s tenets of “family values” and “peace through strength” continue to shape Republican priorities in the United States. Reagan, as well as President Donald Trump, Republican majorities, notwithstanding their differences in rhetoric, economic and foreign policies, share strong support for muscular military, Christian groups, and traditional families. 

The ideals of faith, family, and nation animate the muscular center-right governments of India, Israel, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Modi is an heir to Ronald Reagan and Meloni and Takaichi to Margaret Thatcher in transforming the political landscapes of India, Japan, and Italy, respectively. They are popular mainstream conservatives, not opportunistic populists, who have dedicated their long political careers to honing their message and organizations with firm convictions.

The US, India, Israel, Italy, and Japan Convergence

The national interests of the US, India, Israel, Italy, and Japan are converging in unprecedented ways. The US-India partnership is often referred to as the most consequential of the 21st century, with unmatched scale across agriculture, space, and everything in between. India holds the United States as its largest trading partner and boasts a 500-million-and-growing middle-class market for American goods and services. India now produces 25 percent of Apple iPhones. The US-India military and technology partnership is advancing at a steady clip, notwithstanding momentary distractions such as the recent protracted trade negotiations. 

India and Japan are deepening their one-of-a-kind “Special Strategic and Global Partnership,” second only in scope and impact to the US-India partnership. At the last annual meeting, the two nations signed over 100 memoranda on defense, technology, and economic security, with a stated aim of 10 trillion yen in Japanese investment in India by 2027. The India-Japan special strategic and global partnership is projected to grow more steeply following Sanae Takaichi’s overwhelming electoral mandate in recent elections.

India is Israel’s second-largest trading partner in Asia. India accounts for over 35 percent of Israel’s military........

© The National Interest