India is indispensable ally: US

India matters to the United States because it’s the world’s largest democracy,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said.

“It has the world’s second fastest growing economy and an economy that is a very important source for — of exports for United States companies,and also because it is an increasingly important partner for the United States in addressing common global concerns.

In just 10 years,we’ve had a complete transformation in our bilateral relations and a transformation that enjoys bipartisan support both in India and the United States,” Blake told reporters ahead of the first Cabinet-level Strategic Dialogue between the two countries.

“Perhaps most importantly,we see tremendous potential for growth in our relations with India.

That’s why President Obama and Secretary of State (Hillary) Clinton decided to elevate our relations with India by establishing a strategic dialogue to be led by Secretary Clinton and her counterpart,External Affairs Minister (S M) Krishna,” he said.

Clinton had announced this dialogue last summer on her trip to India,following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was invited by Obama to be this Administration’s first state visit in November,again,to reaffirm the importance that the US attach to its relations with India,Blake said.

Strongly refuting reports that the Obama Administration is not very much focused on India,Blake said the US attaches great importance to our relations with India as President Obama himself has said,this will be one of America’s signature partnerships in the 21st century. “That was shown by the President’s decision to invite Prime Minister Singh. It’s shown by the huge number of dialogues that we have.

It’s shown even more by the huge private sector component to our relations and all of the people-to-people contacts that we have.

If anything,in our case,it’s the governments which are catching up to the people in terms of all of the many,many ties that exist at so many levels of our two countries,” Blake said.

Referring to the National Security Strategy released by the White House on Thursday,Blake said that India and the US are cooperating in every area which has been by this document as a priority for the United States.

“They talked about the four national enduring national interests of security,prosperity,values,and international order.

They also talked about the President’s commitment to nuclear nonproliferation and combating climate change,” he said.

“These are all areas where we are working productively with the Indians,and I think one of the reasons that we have such great confidence in this relationship is that because of these common values and common interests,we are persuaded that India’s influence is going to grow over time as its economy grows,and that we are going to be working ever more closely together because of those common values,” Blake said.

“So it is very much in our interest now to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the strategic dialogue,to think strategically at a high level about how to capitalise on those opportunities,” Blake said in response to a question.