Hillary: India, US interests are aligned
As India and the US head into the third round of their annual strategic dialogue slated for June 13, a measure of its huge importance was evident in US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s remarks wherein she said that the two countries “strategic interests are aligned.”
Ms Clinton’s comments come in a slick one minute and forty second video wherein she also says: “The relationship between India and the United States will be one of those defining partnerships of the 21st century....India is a regional and increasingly global power recognised with its economic, diplomatic and military influence.”
Just two days from now, Ms Clinton will be co-chairing in Washington along with external affairs minister S.M.Krishna the third US-India Strategic Dialogue. In her remarks which indicate the significance Washington attaches to its ties with New Delhi, Ms Clinton also hoped that New Delhi will “venture to make the partnership between the United States and India stronger” adding, “A relationship between our two great democracies is going to determine our futures.”
As regards the strategic ties, the two sides are expected to discuss Afghanistan, a country with whom both India and the US have a Strategic Partnership Agreements. With both India and the US having stakes in this country, both are also anxious to see how things pan out in the trouble-torn country as 2014 when the drawdown of US-led Nato forces happens. Also on the common radar during the strategic dialogue will be Iran with sources here saying that India would like to know how the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries over Tehran’s nuclear programme are progressing. An indication of the importance of this annual dialogue can be had from the fact that substantive exchanges will happen in more than 20 distinct policy areas during the meetings as stated a few days ago by a top official of the Obama administration, Robert O. Blake Jr, who is assistant secretary in the bureau of South and Central Asian affairs, US state department. Mr Blake also acknowledged the importance of the “growing strategic convergence” between the two countries.
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