New Delhi – US President Barack Obama’s visit to India “takes the road ahead to a full-blown Indo-US partnership”, said former Indian ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao. She was speaking at the Third India Today Global Roundtable in New Delhi on Friday.
Ambassador Rao said that Obama’s visit is an important occasion for one billion Indians. She was addressing a powerful gathering of Members of Parliament, former ambassadors, and the Delhi-based diplomatic community.
Defining the current round of bonhomie between the two countries, Rao said that the current relationship between India and the US is a relationship of relationships. She also stressed upon the fact that India needs to be far more assertive in relations with the US concerning the terror emanating from Pakistan.
She said that the vision that defines this complex relationship is the mutual understanding of threats; the common interest in keeping maritime interests free; keeping capitalism and trade on track as well as a common thought on counter-terrorism.
On the India-China relationship through a US prism, Rao said that when the US talks about rebalancing Asia, both India and China are central to that view. She added that neither India not China seek an inclusion or isolation of China. “Both of us seek a mutually-beneficial relationship with China”, Rao said.
Terming the current relationship as transformational, Rao said that factors like promoting clean energy, building skills of youth, FDI in retail, strengthening defence cooperation through technology transfers and resolving the civilian nuclear energy deal, will govern the relations between the two democracies.
Trinamool leader Dinesh Trivedi highlighted the role of higher education in Indo-US relations.
Rajdeeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor, TV Today Network, while delivering the welcome address said that it is now time for India to reciprocate the warm wishes and feelings showered on Modi’s visit to the US when Obama had welcomed him with the Gujarati ‘Kem Cho’. highlighting the warmth in ties between the two countries, Sardesai quoted Obama saying that the ‘stars are just right’ between the two countries.
