Hello and welcome to walk the talk. I am Shekhar Gupta at New Delhi ’s Roosevelt House and my guest this week, the new US Ambassador to India-Ambassador Roemer. Welcome to walk the talk.

TR: Thank you. Namaste

SG: Namaste. The new US Ambassador. Do you feel new or do you feel a veteran already?

TR: I feel probably this is the most important post in the world. Certainly there are always challenges and opportunities here. I am learning as we go. I was instructed by President Obama to try to go out and meet as many people as I possibly can. I remember standing in the White House with the President. The president looked at me and said, ‘Tim, you know that there are a billion people in India ?’ I said yes sir, I know that. he said, ‘I want you to meet as many of those billion people as you possibly can.’

SG: Infact when you back to him, you qualify to him by saying that you forgot to tell me that there are a billion Indians in India , who are argumentative, difficult, diverse.

TR: Well sir, we are diverse. And I think it is one of the great strengths and one of the commonalities between Indian and the United states . We know in the United States we have great diversity in income, in class, in religion, in people. And if there was a scale of 1 to 1o in the United States , we like to think we are about nine and a half. I think in India there might be a new scale up to 19 in the diversity. And it is a great strength of vitality and vibrancy that is here that is great…

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