Soon after newly-elected Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi assumed office, he identified some of his administration’s key priorities. These include improving infrastructure and energy security, boosting domestic manufacturing and increasing foreign investment, and expanding India’s strategic role in its immediate neighborhood and across the Indo-Pacific region. The United States, as one of India’s closest partners, shares many of these goals and looks forward to working with India to reach them.
"This is a relationship that carries a great deal of importance and meaning to the United States and is at a critical moment of opportunity, and we want to make sure we work very closely with our counterparts in India in realizing that opportunity," said Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal.
The economic relationship continues to expand and U.S. firms remain interested in opportunities in India. Two way trade with India increased by $76 billion between 2000 and 2013, and Indian investment into the U.S. supported an estimated 100,000 jobs in 2012. While our trade relationship continues to grow, the U.S. and India are also developing new areas of economic cooperation such as science, technology, and energy.
“We have done a great deal through the collaborations with our Department of Energy and USAID on the partnership for advancing clean energy,” said Assistant Secretary Biswal. Working together, the United States and India are looking at the possibility of launching an off-grid alliance; connecting renewable technologies to the grid; and bringing access to energy for the 400 million Indians who currently have little or no access to electricity.
The United States appreciates India’s efforts to improve the stability, security and prosperity of Afghanistan. We also welcome Prime Minister Modi’s push to realize his vision of greater economic cooperation in the South Asia region, and will support this endeavor however we can.
The United States, said Assistant Secretary Biswal, “has very high hopes for the direction and the vision and the ambition that Prime Minister [Modi] has laid out, and what that means for India, and what that means for the U.S.-India partnership.”
