Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State visit will show that India and the US are “partners of first resort” and will put the relationship on to an “inexorable” upward trajectory, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council (NSC) has said.
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Kirby also said that visit will stress that there is no partner “more consequential” than India in addressing global challenges, and the US will support India’s emergence as a “great power”.
Briefing reporters in Washington just as Modi was about to land in New York, Kirby said that President Joe Biden will raise human rights issues with PM Modi, just as he consistently did with other global leaders, as human rights constituted a foundational pillar of US foreign policy. He, however, emphasised the wide-ranging nature of America’s relationship with India, and spoke about deliverables in the domains of defence, space, health, technology, cyber, people-to-people links and more.
Read: ‘Modi's US visit to boost bilateral ties, not about China, Russia’: White House
{{/usCountry}}Read: ‘Modi's US visit to boost bilateral ties, not about China, Russia’: White House
{{/usCountry}}“As the world’s oldest and largest democracies, and as key net security providers in the Indo-Pacific, the United States and India are increasingly partners of first resort as a combined force for global good. India will be a critical strategic partner for the US in the coming decades, and its growing commitment to playing a more engaged international role, including in the Indo-Pacific Quad, demonstrates a new and growing willingness to join the US to protect and advance a shared vision of a free open and rules based global order,” Kirby said.
He added that as the US thought about AI, quantum, resilient supply chains for clean energy technologies, semiconductors and other critical and emerging technology, countering climate change, the future of workforces, global health, energy, and food security, there was “no partner more consequential than India”.
“We support India’s emergence as a great power that will be central to ensuring US interests in the coming decades…We now look instinctively to each other and work cooperatively with each other to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific to drive innovation, jointly tackle global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic together, and working with other like minded partners, our countries will shape the future working towards a world that again, is open and more prosperous, more stable, more secure, and quite frankly, more resilient,” Kirby said.
Read: Defence, technology on agenda as PM Modi begins key US visit
Biden and Modi were sure to discuss the situation in Ukraine, Kirby said in the context of a question on Delhi-Moscow economic engagement particularly on oil. “You can expect that over the next few days, President Biden and Prime Minister Modi will have wide-ranging discussions about a lot of issues. Some issues are always easier to talk about than others, but that’s what partners do.”
But Kirby once again emphasised the “robust” agenda that was on the table during the visit, termed the relationship a “defining” one well into the future, and outlined tangible deliverables in the offing. “One will be on health, global health…we cooperated very, very strongly with India, to address Covid-19. And I think you’ll hear the leaders talk about global health cooperation going forward.”
Kirby said there will be deliverables on climate, defence and emerging technologies and people-to-people ties and deepening of cultural and educational linkages since that was really at the “root of the strength of the bilateral relationship”.
“It’s going to be the young people that are going to be the future leaders of both their countries. And so we want to make sure that we’re investing properly in their growth, in their development and their mutual understanding, and in the relationships that they will take forward into the future,” he said.