Rao says India-US partnership has global significance

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Observing that the Indo-US strategic partnership has global significance, Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao has said the two countries are jointly working in a variety of fields, from fighting terrorism to ensuring the stability of the world economy.

"India and the US have been described as natural strategic partners. Today, our strategic partnership has global significance," Rao said in her address to the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, India-South Asia Programme.

"The expanding cooperation between India and the US remains firmly anchored in our shared values and our ability to work together in a variety of fields, from fighting the menace of terrorism to ensuring the stability of the global economy," she said.

The India-US Strategic Dialogue initiated in 2009 has identified five principal areas for expanding cooperation: energy and climate change; education and development; economy, trade and agriculture; science and technology; health and innovation.

The third meeting of the Dialogue will be held later this year, she noted. Rao said it was evident that people-to-people contacts remain at the heart of the Indo-US partnership.

"Backed by this extraordinary connectivity at the people level, both sides are expanding their strategic and political consultations on issues of mutual interest and responding to new geo-political and geo-strategic realities," she said.

The US, she said, remains a preferred destination for Indian students to pursue their advanced degrees. Nearly 100,000 students from India are benefiting from the higher education system in the US.

"And we would like to see more and more American students coming to India in the future to study India. The newly launched 'Passport to India' initiative by the US State Department is a laudable initiative in this direction," she said.

"I believe as the economic engagement between India and United States grows further, we would see continuous expansion in such exchanges between India and the United States, unleashing the creative energy of our youth for our common prosperity," the Indian Ambassador said.

In October last year, the first ever India-US Higher Education Summit was held in Washington, which has defined a strategic vision for the future of the US-India higher education partnership, she said.

"As both our countries work towards becoming truly knowledge economies, I believe there are immense opportunities for forging newer links in the areas of education, research and innovation as also technology and skill development," Rao said.