India and the US both are fully committed to further strengthening their strategic bilateral ties to the next level and the recent conversations between the top officials of the two countries have been very warm and forward looking, India’s top diplomat here has said.
The India-US partnership has been on a steady upward trajectory in recent years, India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu told PTI in an exclusive interview.
“Going forward, both sides are fully committed to further strengthening of bilateral ties, based on our shared values and increasing convergences on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual importance,” he said.
The bilateral partnership is exploring new horizons in diverse areas such as trade and economy, defence and security, energy and climate change, healthcare, science and technology, Information Technology and innovation, and people-to-people connections, he said.
“Our partnership enjoys strong bipartisan support both in the US and India. So here we are in 2021, the beginning of a new year, a new decade and we are committed to taking our ties of cooperation and friendship with the US to the next level. We look forward to strengthening our existing partnerships across diverse sectors. Yes, we have indeed done a lot together; but there is still a lot more to be done together,” Sandhu said.
In the first 10 days, the Biden administration’s top officials have spoken with their Indian counterparts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the few world leaders to have spoken with President Joe Biden soon after his electoral victory in November.
“Prime Minister Modi spoke to President-elect Biden on 17 November in which the two leaders reiterated their firm commitment to bilateral strategic partnership and discussed shared priorities such as Covid-19 pandemic, energy and climate change, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region,” Sandhu said.
In recent days, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval have spoken to their respective US counterparts — Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and NSA Jake Sullivan.