Aided by the back-to-back visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington last September and by President Barack Obama to New Delhi in January, India and the United States have now advanced to a “strategic plus” partnership, says US Ambassador to India Richard R Verma. “I believe we are witnessing a transformative time in US – India relations,” Verma told a leading Washington think tank on Friday, noting: “We now have what I would call a “strategic plus” partnership — it is bigger, it is more ambitious and it reflects the true convergence of interests between our two nations not only for today, but for the years and decades ahead.”
If some 30 agreements and dialogues have been launched or reinvigorated since Modi’s US visit, there are in fact 70 different lines of effort coming out of Obama’s India visit, Verma said, remarking that these stretch “from the depths of the oceans to the farthest reaches of the stars, to Mars and beyond”.
“If we were natural partners prior to January, we now aim to become India’s best partner,” Verma said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as he dwelt on two important documents concluded during Obama’s visit: the Delhi Declaration of Friendship and the Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region.
The Modi visit helped begin the process of breaking deadlocks in key areas, Verma said, citing major achievements relating to implementation of the civil nuclear deal, WTO trade facilitation agreement and the Trade Policy Forum to tackle hard issues such as intellectual property and trade in services matters.
He also highlighted the renewal of the 10-year defence framework agreement and the push forward with six different projects under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). “So, strategic plus is about an enhanced partnership, a new way of operating and thinking, a commitment to see the larger objectives for global peace and prosperity, even as we may periodically get bogged down in our day to day disputes,” Verma commented.
With a big agenda and lofty goals, the two countries are now “focused on finding creative, realistic ways to move them all forward”, Verma said and touched upon the Joint Implementation Working Group with the Ministry of External Affairs to make sure consistent progress is being made in all the identified areas.