Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
India remains a strategic partner for the United States, a top White House official said Wednesday adding that it is for New Delhi to decide what their stand is going to be on any particular crisis around the world including the one in the Middle East.
“India is a key strategic partner, and I think you saw that on full display when Prime Minister Modi was here,” John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, said during a news conference. “But we’ll leave it to the Indian government and to the prime minister to decide what their stance is going to be on any particular crisis or contingency around the world, to include the Middle East,” Kirby said in response to a question. “They (India) remain a key strategic partner. And we’re dedicated to advancing that partnership every single day,” Kirby said.
This position is in line with what a senior State Department official said earlier this month, where he stressed that India and the US share the goal of preventing the spread of the current conflict in the Middle East and advancing a two-state solution for Palestine. These remarks come as the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on November 10.
On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar would host their American counterparts, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for the high-stakes annual talks in the national capital. “The 2+2 will enable a high-level review of progress being made in cross-cutting aspects of defence and security cooperation, technology value chain collaborations and people-to-people ties,” the MEA said in a statement.
“The Ministers will take the opportutnity to progress the futuristic roadmap for the India-US partnership as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden, in their discussions in June and September this year,” it added. Both sides will also take stock of contemporary regional issues and exchange views about shared priorities for augmenting cooperation in multilateral platforms, and through frameworks such as Quad, the MEA said.
‘Focus on Deepening Security Cooperation’
On Wednesday, the State Department said the India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue in New Delhi this week will focus on deepening security cooperation between the two countries. “India is a country that we have a deep partnership (with). He (Blinken) will be going for the 2+2 security dialogue with Secretary of Defense Austin, so I expect, of course, that deepening the security cooperation and partnership will be one of the many topics that are discussed,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at his daily news conference.
“It was something that was obviously raised during Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s state visit earlier this year, and I know the Secretary looks forward to being there and engaging directly with his counterparts on this,” Patel said in response to a question.
