A top American business advocacy group has hosted a reception for the outgoing India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who retires from the Indian Foreign Service at month-end after an illustrious 35-year career.

The US India Business Council (USIBC) hosted the reception on Wednesday, attended by top officials from the White House, State Department and representatives from the corporate sector, applauded the role played by Sandhu in shaping the India-US relationship over the past few decades.

During his long career, Sandhu was posted in the United States four times, with three of them being at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC.

“When you make the short list of people who really made a difference (to India-US relationship), Ambassador Sandhu is on that list in a way that very few people who serve in the diplomatic ranks have been able to do,” Kurt Campbell, National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific at the White House said in his remarks at the farewell reception.

“He will be badly missed. He has come to personify the relationship between the United States and India. He's a terrific friend. He's a wonderful human being, and he's done a great job. We wish him well in whatever he does next. I just hope it's not retirement. There are too many skills that he brings to the table,” Campbell said.

Atul Keshap, a former diplomat and current president of US India Business Council, said in addition to being a tactful and skilful diplomat, Sandhu has been “a dreamer” who has achieved “truly great things” for the US-India relationship.

“I don't have to chronicle all of them. History will record them, but the bilateral relationship is at the best possible stage that I have seen in my entire life, and it's because of your efforts,” he said.

“The State Visit of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi was truly impressive and showed the vastness and importance of the relationship. Pulling that off was never going to be easy, but you and your team did it with grace and style. Very impressive!” Keshap told Sandhu at the reception.

In his remarks, Sandhu spoke about the India-US relationship and also praised the role played by many present there, including Campbell, Keshap and Nisha Desai Biswal, Deputy CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation, in strengthening India-US ties and navigating many bilateral crises together.

“I cannot help but mention a bit about my good friend Kurt (Campbell). As we know, he is a force in himself and has made the impossible possible,” Sandhu said, referring to the establishment and success of the Quad Summit, including its first summit at the peak of COVID-19.

Highlighting the various aspects of the India-US relationship, including defence, education, and the recently launched ICET dialogue, Singh said this partnership actually requires much more investment and involvement today.

Biswal, who has worked with Sandhu in various capacities from the US side during the past few decades, said that what Sandhu understood was a fundamental principle of foreign policy that the relationship between nations is ultimately about the relationship between the people.

“In all of his tours of duty, but most importantly in his current role as Ambassador, Taranjit has invested in the people at the heart of the relationship," she said.

"Whether it was the people in the State Department or the White House that ran the policy, or the people on the Hill who shaped the politics of the US-India partnership, members of the diaspora community, the business community, the educational institutions, the cultural institutions; engaging at the state level, at the city level, no matter where you lived or worked, if you had an impact or an importance to the US and new relationship, Taranjit would find you and he would seek you out,” she said.

“In a sense, he brought to this relationship a politician's instinct. Maybe that is why he has been so successful in engaging the Congress. It is that political instinct combined with the strategic mind that has made him such an influential and effective ambassador and advocate for India in the United States, in Sri Lanka, and across the many geographies that he has served in,” Biswal said.