US strategic interest is to support India’s rise as global power

INTERNATIONAL DESK: US strategic interest is to support India’s rise as a global power, a senior administration official said adding that America and India’s partnership is essential.

Talking about the US-India initiative on critical and emerging technologies (ICET), the official said that it is the result of President Biden and Prime Minister Modi’s direction to their respective national security advisors to kind of spearhead this strategic initiative and expand the partnership.

The official also said, “This partnership is essential… and Biden enduring efforts to address any of the major challenges that the world faces today, whether we’re looking at food or energy or health security, the climate crisis, or upholding a free and open, prosperous, no Pacific, willing to work without a US India partnership at its heart. Prime Minister Modi described it in Tokyo as a partnership of trust and a force for good global peace and stability. And the US really views that this is in our strategic interest to support India’s rise as a global power and we see that in the post-the quad and as India’s presidency of the G20.”

“This describes a greater vision of this coherent US-Indo Pacific strategy that requires that both America and India pull closer to the and overcome long-standing obstacles to doing so. The US view is that our relationship with India is essential, not just because of the way the world looks today, but rather that this is the next logical milestone of our relationship. And we view that’s what’s going on here. It’s really even larger than in 2006. You know, when we look at all these different initiatives that Tarun is going to outline. Even accomplishing one of them would be very huge and impactful, but we’re working to step out on all fronts. In a lot of ways that are very, very exciting,” the official said.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan made the remarks at a high-level roundtable organised by the US India Business Council (USIBC) of the US Chambers of Commerce.

Doval and India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu highlighted India’s remarkable capacity for technology development and absorption and emphasised India’s use of technology not only as an enabler of economic growth but as an instrument of social inclusion.

They commended the launch of the iCET, given the natural complementary strengths of the Indian and American economies and the growing strategic convergence between both nations.

Doval, who arrived in Washington on Monday, also met General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US where both of them held a “fruitful discussion.”

iCET was announced during bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Tokyo in 2022 on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders Summit.

During the roundtable, Doval and Sandhu also emphasised on India’s growing role as a trusted supply chain partner and contributor in the global technology value chain while underlining the importance of easing export control measures to facilitate technology access, co-production, and co-development between India and the US.

The US National Security Advisor said in his remarks that iCET will “accelerate our strategic convergence” and policy alignment.

“iCET is about much more than technology cooperation, it’s a platform to accelerate our strategic convergence and policy alignment,” he said.

Highlighting the work ahead for both governments, Sullivan said that the United States and Indian governments “want to establish a list of “firsts”.

“Firsts in removing barriers on both sides to enable greater ambition by all of you,” he said. (ANI)