Washington: Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, on Friday highlighted the strong bilateral relations between India and US at an event of the Center for New American Security (CNAS).
“India is a great power. It’s not an ally of the US and never be an ally of the United States. But it does not mean that we will not be close partners. And that’s why we need to understand the role that India will play as a great nation on the global stage. We want to encourage that and support that and deepen this relationship which is already, probably the strongest people-to-people relationship of any country that the United States has on the global stage,” said Campbell.
Campbell said that the India-US relationship “is the most important bilateral relationship for the United States in the 21st century.”
Responding to a question, he said there has been an exponential increase in engagement in virtually every area. “We just concluded discussions in a form called ICET in which the Indian National Security Advisor brought the highest-ranking group of Indian technologists ever to come to any country, and came to the United States to talk about how to partner on areas going forward,” said Campbell.
“We’re working more on defence-related issues on people to people. We want more Indian students in our universities. We want more American students in Indian universities. We want more people-to-people, university partnerships more generally, and health partnerships. We have just announced efforts to work together in space. So the agenda is extraordinarily rich. The ambitions are high,” he added.
Reiterating that Washington is destined to work more closely with New Delhi, Campbell talked about heightened tension between India and China and said, “What we have seen over the last five or ten years, is a series of actions that have challenged the global Order and that have raised questions about China’s goal and ambition. Not just in one or two places, in a variety of places. I began by talking about the India – China border. Some of the steps that China has taken along this vast border have been provocative and deeply concerning to Indian partners and friends.”
