India will be critical strategic partner for US in coming decades: White House

India will be a critical strategic partner for the US in the coming decades, the White House said, and asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the country will affirm the deep and close partnership between the two nations.

Modi is visiting the US from June 21-24 at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, who will host him at a state dinner on June 22. The visit also includes an address by the prime minister to the joint session of the US Congress on June 22.

In his departure statement, Modi had said this “special invitation” from President Biden and the First Lady for a state visit is a reflection of the vigour and vitality of the partnership between the democracies.

Also read: Modi leaves for US on June 20; here’s the itinerary

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications (NSCCSC) John Kirby on Tuesday (June 20) told a press conference in Washington, “India will be a critical strategic partner for the United States in the coming decades.”

‘Shared vision of free, open, rules-based global order’

India’s growing commitment to playing a more “engaged international role, including in the Indo-Pacific Quad, demonstrates a new and growing willingness to join the United States to protect and advance a shared vision of a free, open, and rules-based global order”, he said.

Kirby said that “as we think about the future of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and building resilient supply chains for clean energy technologies, semiconductors, and other critical and emerging technology, countering climate change, the future of our workforces, and global health, energy, food security, there is no partner more consequential than India”.

“The official state visit of the prime minister will affirm the deep and close partnership between the US and India, and the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together,” he told reporters at the Foreign Press Center.

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“The visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific, and our shared resolve to elevate its strategic technology partnership, including in defence, clean energy, and space,” he said.

Kirby added that the leaders would discuss ways to further expand educational exchanges and people-to-people ties as well as work together to confront common challenges from climate change to workforce development and health security.

‘US, India partners of first resort’

He said as the world’s oldest and largest democracies and as key net security providers in the Indo-Pacific, the US and India are increasingly partners of first resort as a combined force for global good.

“Now, we are hosting India for an official state visit to put our cooperation on an inexorable trajectory as we support India’s emergence as a great power that will be central to ensuring US interest in the coming decades,” he said.

Also read: PM Modi’s US visit marks important point in bilateral relationship: Top American senators

The NSCCSC said after years of strengthening ties, the US-India partnership is deeper and more expansive than it has ever been in the past. “We now look instinctively to each other and work cooperatively with each other to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific, to drive innovation, jointly tackle global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kirby said.

“Together and working with other like-minded partners, our countries will shape the future, working towards a world that, again, is open and more prosperous, more stable, more secure, and, quite frankly, more resilient,” he said.

(With agency inputs)