Obama admin seeks to "broaden and strengthen" ties with India

The Obama administration has said it wants to "broaden and strengthen" bilateral ties with India including in the fields of defence and economy, as it prepares to send one of its top official to New Delhi next week.

The Obama administration has said it wants to "broaden and strengthen" bilateral ties with India including in the fields of defence and economy, as it prepares to send one of its top official to New Delhi next week.

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"We want greater economic exchange with India. We want to broaden the access for academic institutions, foreign academic institutions in India. We want to improve our defense relationship with India," said Patrick Moon, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.

Observing that the relationship between the two countries has made great strides in the past one decade, Moon said that the new government in New Delhi led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gives brighter indication in this regard.

"We are seeking to broaden and strengthen our bilateral relationship. We have certainly made great strides with India, as it has opened up to the rest of the world and particularly to the West, and the new government gives every prospect of strengthening that trend," he said.

"He (Burns) will be following up on the very successful elections there. The largest democracy in the world conducted a very smooth election, very little violence, and returned the Congress party to power," Moon said.