A top official of the State Department said the impact of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit was a”clear and compelling” vision of the future between the two democratic nations.
Nisha Desai Biswal, assistant secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, speaking at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, The Heritage Foundation June 9, said the current relationship was the result of a decade of work and the “bold steps” taken by the previous administrations of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in negotiating the landmark civil-nuclear agreement.
“The most important outcome, in my mind, of (the) visit this week (June 6-8), and of the years of effort, is the clear and compelling vision that was laid out by Prime Minister Modi yesterday before a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress,” Biswal said.
“The Modi Doctrine — as I have been calling it — laid out a foreign policy vision that “overcomes the hesitations of history” and embraces the convergence between our two countries and our shared interests,” she said.
Seeing the U.S. as India’s indispensable partner,” Modi not only drew upon the precedent set by former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, but put forward “a bold vision of a U.S.-India partnership that can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific and help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas,” Biswal said.
The Modi Doctrine notes that the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty in Asia and reiterates India’s adherence to and call for others to support international rules and norms, she noted,and ushers in “a new era of partnership” between the two countries, she said.
The Westinghouse venture in the making, to provide six nuclear reactors to India, Biswal said, was a culmination of the close relations. “But the real impact of that deal is that it set both countries on a path towards greater cooperation and convergence over the past decade culminating in the historic visit which we have just concluded,” she said, adding that the strategic partnership with India is a “key element” of President Obama’s “Rebalance to Asia.”
Without the security and defense cooperation with India, other cooperation would not be possible, Biswal indicated.
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