India, US 'desirable, optimal' partners: EAM S Jaishankar vows to take ties to different level

Sandeep Dikshit

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New Delhi, October 1

The India-US relationship is at an all-time high and the two nations have moved to a position where they see each other as “very desirable, optimal and comfortable partners”, remarked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while addressing Indian-Americans at the India House in Washington DC on Saturday.

“There is one clear message today that our relationship is at an all-time high. But as they say in America, you ain’t seen anything yet. So, we are going to take this relationship to a different level, to a different place. In this changing world, I would say today that India and the US have moved to a position where we see each other as very desirable, optimal and comfortable partners with whom it’s a natural instinct today to pick up the phone or if you meet someone and have a natural conversation,” he said.

Drawing on his personal experience, Jaishankar said he had been present at most momentous occasions in Indo-US bilateral ties since 1985 but had never witnessed such closeness of ties. “I have to say that this one (PM Modi’s recent state visit) was different, it was different in optics, and if you ask me what has changed, I would say India and the US earlier used to deal with each other and now they work with each other,” he said.

Jaishankar recalled the collaborative endeavours between the two countries such as the India-Middle East Economic Corridor, I2U2 (India, Israel, US, UAE) and Indo-Pacific cooperation, and the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). “Alphabet ‘I’ is very good for the US, certainly,” he quipped. “The new India is an India of Chandraayan, it’s an India of CoWIN, it’s an India of 5G. This is really what we are capable of, and it is this India today that the US also sees. It is this India with which the US actually has an appetite for working, much more closely,” said Jaishankar.

Relationship at all-time high

Our relationship is at an all-time high… we are going to take it to a different level… I can promise this relationship, like Chandrayaan, will go to the moon, maybe even beyond. — S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister