In a recent speech to the Hudson Institute, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Verma outlined four areas for future U.S.-India cooperation.
The first area he highlighted is in the field of emerging science and technology.
“This means that the U.S.-India partnership will incorporate, at its core, these new tech frontiers to include: accelerating clean energy and climate change mitigation; delivering new technologies to farmers for smarter and more impactful seeds and crop cultivation; working together on vaccine development and preventing the next pandemic to provide greater global health security; securing our supply chains for critical minerals and diversifying the sources and reliability of semiconductor production; delivering on the promise of artificial intelligence and quantum computing while putting in the appropriate safeguards.”
The second goal is to build multilateral institutions to deliver greater peace and prosperity for the people of the Indo-Pacific region, said Deputy Secretary Verma:
“Two-thirds of the world’s population and future economic output in the decade ahead will take place from India to Australia and everywhere in between. ... But the threats to rules-based order and democracy are real and present. We have to use all the tools at our disposal to continue to defend the gains made in the past decades. This includes supporting our established configurations like the Quad. We also have to double down in multilateral institutions like ASEAN, APEC, and, of course, the United Nations.”
“On the economics and commercial side,” said Secretary Verma, “we must work towards transparent, fair, and open regulatory processes, where businesses operate on a level playing field, creating jobs, and solving the issues that matter for the people in both countries.”
The final goal is to increase people-to-people ties, said Deputy Secretary Verma:
“It is why we are opening new consulates in India and why we have worked so hard to reduce the wait times and visa backlogs. It is why we have doubled down on our cooperation in arts, sports, culture, women’s empowerment, and so much more.”
“So long as we are not complacent, and do not take the recent gains of the past quarter century for granted,” said Deputy Secretary Verma, “then I do believe our years ahead can be even better, even stronger, and even more impactful.”
