Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned state visit to the US from June 21 to 24, United States’s ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said that the ties between the two countries are ‘historic and generational’.
In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18 on Tuesday, the US ambassador said that the friendship between the two countries has never been stronger. “You can feel that warmth between our leaders, you see that reflected at state dinner…But it isn’t just dependent on two people…It’s about 1.7 billion people who know, respect, and like each other… And see the future of both sides tied together,” he said.
Garcetti also talked about the current state of the India-US bilateral relationship. He told CNN-News18 “I think it’s historic right now and it’s generational in both senses of the word…something that’s going to last more than this moment. It’s an investment in the generation together but it’s also generating good things for our countries and for the world…Whether it’s technology…making sure technology can be a force for good and not of oppression…Whether a strategic partnership that says this is about maintaining and respecting borders and sovereignty, open seaways, or whether it’s people-to-people ties, which of course we have been building for a long time.
“Every Indian knows somebody who has studied in the US, travelled to the US…I think that this is a historic moment in our relationship…It’s natural, but this is also generational…This is something that is not just about short-term transactions, but it’s about the long-term relationship,” he said.
Talking about the PM’s state dinner in June, he said that the visit is about the idea of the Indo-Pacific now being real. “Not just to guide our relationship with India but to guide our own future to make sure we are not dependent on one place for supply chains and to make sure that our values of two democracies stand in contrast to other countries who aren’t democratic,” he said.
“This is also about the region put together, not just bilateral ties but our quadrilateral ties with Japan and Australia in the Quad…The I2U2 with Israel and UAE…We really have the ability to be a force together for doing good things not just for our people but recognition in Washington that our future is tied to India’s success and its success is tied to ours,” he told CNN-News18.
Garcetti also talked about India’s stand on the Russia-Ukraine war where it is not on the same page as the US and Europe. “We know that we can continue doing things together even where, as all good friends do, we don’t agree one hundred per cent all the time but I think the street here in India recognises how important that sovereignty issue is… How important borders and respecting them are and we’ll continue to say you don’t have to be involved in this war to feel its impact. This is affecting the global economy and India has suffered too because of what’s going on,” he said.
Regarding the concern about the amount of oil India is importing from Russia, he told CNN-News18 “Our position is that India has helped us actually keep that price cap that was essential tenet…It wasn’t a ban on this oil but a price cap and so India’s participation is actually fulfilling that goal for us…Were we to see that it goes higher or something else we would have to revisit that but right now it’s in line with how the alliance has come together…We understand oil is an international good that prices affect all of us, but at the same time whether it is diamonds or technology, other places where we want to be sure that there is a price for aggression, we are going continue very aggressively after that and hopefully bring like-minded people with us.
With inputs from agencies
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