Degree of trust, confidence that India, US have was not present a decade ago: Kurt Campbell

INTERNATIONAL DESK: US President Joe Biden’s top official for the Indo-Pacific region, Kurt Campbell said that the degree of trust and confidence developed between India and the US was not present a decade ago.

“I think what is also developed more and more between the United States and India is a degree of trust and confidence that, frankly, was not present a decade ago,” Kurt Campbell said.

Speaking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States on June 22, he said that he hopes this visit “consecrates” the US.

He said that India’s relationship is the most important bilateral relationship for the United States on the global stage and that “we effectively make it into a sort of escape velocity.”

He said that in his own period of engaging with India, one of the most important things that has developed in this process is the degree of trust and confidence that was not present a decade ago.

Speaking on the possible outcomes of the visit, Kurt said, “There will be deliverables. There will be discussion about areas where we are united, and areas where we still continue to have concerns.”

He said that both India and the US are imperfect democracies. “We both have challenges,” he added.

“And I think our goal will be to seek to build on that. And that certainly seems to be a bipartisan consensus as far as I believe it is,” Kurt said while discussing the individual concerns of both nations.

He said that the world is recognising the critical role that India is playing on the global stage and it is not just strategic.

“Many business groups, and investment groups, are looking at India as part of a strategy to diversify globally with new supply chains, new investment opportunities, and the most impressive diaspora,” he said.

“I’ve engaged with Indian Americans in the US who are proud and pleased with going forward, I think the hope will be to open up venues and activities for more investment, for more people, to people,” he said in terms of opening more opportunities.

“Our universities need to train many more engineers and high-tech people,” he added.

He said that the general attitude of Indians is to volunteer and go for the opportunity when they see one.

“And so we want to open those opportunities up for greater people, to people across the board,” he added.

He said, “This (PM Modi’s visit) potentially could be one of the most important sorts of juncture points with the potential for the United States and India to assume its place, this relationship, is really the critical, dynamic relationship that I think we aspire.”

Kurt Campbell made these remarks on On June 6 in his discussion with Hudson Institute’s distinguished fellow Walter Russell Mead on the United States foreign policy and America’s role in the world. (ANI)