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US says it wants India to play wider role in Asia and beyond
The United States is making the case for India playing a wider role in Asia and beyond, marked by “greater collective action” by both countries in dealing with major challenges in different parts of the world.
The two countries have “no fundamental conflicts of interest”, so there is no reason why they should not strive to be closer partners in the UN system and beyond, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said, adding: “We will have our share of frictions along the way, but it is in both our interests to try.”
“The collective action we have endorsed together through the G-20, the Nuclear Security Summit and the Global Counterterrorism Forum we launched last week in New York are excellent examples of our capacity to work constructively together to solve the problems no one nation can solve alone,” Burns said.
The No 2 official at the State Department made his observations at a dialogue jointly hosted by FICCI and the Brookings Institution, titled: “Is there a future for the US-India Partnership?”
Ambassador Nirupama Rao, providing the Indian perspective, made the point that in a relationship as wide in scope as India-US strategic partnership, there could be differences on some issues, but these will have to be dealt with “a sense of maturity without losing sight of the broad, long-term strategic goals”.
Apart from some pulls and pressures on the bilateral front, there are differences in their approach to certain major issues on the multilateral front. At the UN itself, India has come out in support of the unilateral Palestinian push for statehood even as the US has threatened to veto the move at the UN Security Council.
On the bilateral front, both nurse their grievances. The US is sore over the enactment of the Indian liability law relating to implementation of civil nuclear deal and New Delhi’s failure to shortlist US aviation majors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, for awarding the $10 billion fighter jets contract. India is worked up over the US Congress moves to target Indian IT companies through punitive visa fee hike and other curbs.
At the FICCI-Brookings symposium, however, both Burns and Rao sought to give a largely positive projection.
“Our mutual understanding on critical issues, including on global economic situation, terrorism, Afghanistan, regional challenges and Asian stability has become stronger. The frequency, quality and the range of our political dialogue on all regional and global issues have reached a new level,” Rao noted.
The two countries have “no fundamental conflicts of interest”, so there is no reason why they should not strive to be closer partners in the UN system and beyond, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said, adding: “We will have our share of frictions along the way, but it is in both our interests to try.”
“The collective action we have endorsed together through the G-20, the Nuclear Security Summit and the Global Counterterrorism Forum we launched last week in New York are excellent examples of our capacity to work constructively together to solve the problems no one nation can solve alone,” Burns said.
The No 2 official at the State Department made his observations at a dialogue jointly hosted by FICCI and the Brookings Institution, titled: “Is there a future for the US-India Partnership?”
Ambassador Nirupama Rao, providing the Indian perspective, made the point that in a relationship as wide in scope as India-US strategic partnership, there could be differences on some issues, but these will have to be dealt with “a sense of maturity without losing sight of the broad, long-term strategic goals”.
Apart from some pulls and pressures on the bilateral front, there are differences in their approach to certain major issues on the multilateral front. At the UN itself, India has come out in support of the unilateral Palestinian push for statehood even as the US has threatened to veto the move at the UN Security Council.
On the bilateral front, both nurse their grievances. The US is sore over the enactment of the Indian liability law relating to implementation of civil nuclear deal and New Delhi’s failure to shortlist US aviation majors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, for awarding the $10 billion fighter jets contract. India is worked up over the US Congress moves to target Indian IT companies through punitive visa fee hike and other curbs.
At the FICCI-Brookings symposium, however, both Burns and Rao sought to give a largely positive projection.
“Our mutual understanding on critical issues, including on global economic situation, terrorism, Afghanistan, regional challenges and Asian stability has become stronger. The frequency, quality and the range of our political dialogue on all regional and global issues have reached a new level,” Rao noted.
