The ties between India and the United States retain the greatest potential "to evolve, strengthen and improve", a top US official said on Sunday (local time) at an event as he further highlighted that "2022 has been a highly accomplished year in the bilateral relations". "Looking around the world, when the United States and President Joe Biden look for partners that can truly help move forward a global agenda, India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are very high on that list," Jon Finer, Deputy National Security Advisor, White House, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. "We're excited about what is to come in this relationship and we're committed to moving it forward," he further asserted.
Biden and the White House see ties with India "as the most consequential relationships with US anywhere in the world," the top official further underlined as he said: "This relationship retains greatest potential to continue to evolve, strengthen and improve, and we are deeply committed to doing just that. 2022 is a highly accomplished year in the bilateral ties, and we've an even bigger year to come. We have the Quad Summit, we have India's G20 presidency that we are looking forward to including PM Modi." India was handed over the G20 presidency at the recently concluded Summit in Indonesia as it readies to host the Group of 20 nations next year.
The top official was addressing the event held by New Delhi. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, India's envoy in the US, posting about the event on Twitter, said: "Delighted to host a large gathering of US friends of India & diaspora in celebration of India's diverse festivals Diwali, Gurpurab, Eid , Bodhi Day, Hanukkah and Xmas. (sic).
He also spoke about how the two premier agencies in the two countries - NASA and ISRO - are working together on the human space flight programmes. NISAR - the joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) - also figured in his comments on climate change. "The bilateral partnership is a two-way street and this is a very symbiotic relationship. As PM Modi said, 'Much of the India that we dream of, lies ahead of us'. It is only a journey we've started, we look towards our friends like the US to join us in our journey ahead," he asserted. "Today, American Tower has more mobile towers in India than in US. Many US companies have their huge R&D centres in India. From almost negligible numbers a few years back, today we've over 77,000 start-ups in India with 108 having unicorn status. India’s talent pool is like no other country’s as 50 per cent population is below 25 years – being skilled at a fast pace," the envoy further pointed out.
{{/usCountry}}He also spoke about how the two premier agencies in the two countries - NASA and ISRO - are working together on the human space flight programmes. NISAR - the joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) - also figured in his comments on climate change. "The bilateral partnership is a two-way street and this is a very symbiotic relationship. As PM Modi said, 'Much of the India that we dream of, lies ahead of us'. It is only a journey we've started, we look towards our friends like the US to join us in our journey ahead," he asserted. "Today, American Tower has more mobile towers in India than in US. Many US companies have their huge R&D centres in India. From almost negligible numbers a few years back, today we've over 77,000 start-ups in India with 108 having unicorn status. India’s talent pool is like no other country’s as 50 per cent population is below 25 years – being skilled at a fast pace," the envoy further pointed out.
{{/usCountry}}Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, speaking at the event, further insisted that the "partnership between India and the US has become more important than ever". "Our countries share a number of common challenges. We share a fierce commitment to ensuring that we lift everyone up when it comes to access to health care or investments in prevention," he stressed.
(With inputs from ANI)