As many as 27 US lawmakers will be visiting India this month in what Indian Ambassador Navtej Sarna regards as “a very important milestone” that is demonstrative of the high degree of American interest in India and the strong bipartisan support for the India-US relationship.
Sarna, who hosted a Congressional reception on Tuesday to celebrate India’s engagement with the 115th US Congress, expressed the hope that the growing engagement would lead to a “more robust economic and commercial cooperation as India retains its spot as the fastest growing major economy”.
The US lawmakers will be travelling as members of two different delegations. One, sponsored by the Aspen Institute, will bring 19 lawmakers of both Republican and Democratic parties from February 20 to 25, with stops in New Delhi and Hyderabad, during which wide-ranging discussions will be held with government officials, politicians, think tanks and non-governmental organisations.
The second one will be a bipartisan Congressional delegation, led by Republican lawmaker Bob Goodlatte, who heads the House Judiciary Committee. This team, which also includes George Holding, the Republican co-chair of the India Caucus, will be visiting New Delhi and Bangalore from February 20 to 23.
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer made a strong pitch for enhanced cooperation on security issues between the two big democracies, while Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher wanted a bilateral push to address the growing threat from extremist radical terrorism. Indian American lawmaker Ami Bera, who is also the Democratic co-chair of the India Caucus, expressed confidence that the US-India relationship would be a defining one for the 21st century.