Washington, July 14
Declaring that America's
deepening friendship with India is an indispensable part of US Asia
rebalance strategy, US Vice President Joe Biden has reiterated
Washington's commitment to take the India-US partnership still higher.
"US-India
partnership has reached a new level" under President Barack Obama, he
said Monday in keynote speech on the future of the US-India partnership
to mark the tenth anniversary of the landmark India-US civil nuclear
deal.
The nuclear deal "removed the single largest irritant in
the relationship between the two greatest democracies," he said on the
conclusion of a conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
"Together
we transformed the bilateral relationship into a global partnership
based on shared values, interests, responsibilities," he said. "All of
these will go to shape the next century if we stay the course."
"We
are committed to take this relationship further" for the well being of
both the US and India as also for the advancement of the international
community, he said suggesting that the world was "at the cusp of another
sea change decade."
To seize this "historic moment, Biden said
"the US was pursuing a strategy of rebalancing to the Asia Pacific
region" and "America's deepening friendship with India is an
indispensable part of our Asia rebalance strategy."
"India's Act East and US Rebalance in Asia is good news for the region as well as good news for the partnership," he said.
The
joint strategic vision for the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region
that Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had issued in January
"serves as a beacon," Biden said.
"And every day we are working
to try to make this vision a reality," he said recalling that Obama had
during his January visit to India had "declared that the US can be
India's best partner."
"That's our goal," he said. "Change is taking place," Biden said. "It's a historic moment in the world, let's seize it."
"We
have a chance to bend history just a little bit," he said. "This is one
of those moments when our common interests are going to continue to
converge and our countries have the potential to reach new heights."
Earlier,
addressing the Conference, Assistant Secretary of State for South and
Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal recalled that "Ten years ago, access to
nuclear, space, and other forms of high technology were among the most
contentious issues between India and the United States."
"Today those issues are part of the foundation on which we're building a lasting partnership," she said.
"In
defence, the US is now India's largest supplier, and we are launching
new co-development and co-production projects that will expand our ties
and advance Prime Minister Modi's Make in India initiative," she noted.
"Clearly,
our relationship with the US has transformed rapidly in the last ten
years to become a full-spectrum relationship, covering virtually all
fields of human endeavour," said the Indian ambassador Arun Singh.
"It
is now embedded in the larger vision of a global strategic
partnership," he said asserting "that no relationship between India and
another country can today match the range, depth, quality and intensity
of the India-US partnership."
"Going forward, I see the US
continuing to play a role in India's transformation, and see India and
the US joining hands to make the world a better place for our two
nations and the rest of the world," Singh said.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
