Dec 8, 2022
The White House Asia coordinator, Kurt Campbell
At an Aspen Security Forum meeting on Thursday, 8th December 2022, Kurt Campbell, the White House Asia coordinator, said that in his view India is the most important bilateral relationship for the United States in the 21st century.
“India has a unique strategic character. It will not be an ally of the United States. It has a desire to be an independent, powerful state and it will be another great power. But I think there are reasons to believe that our strategic alignment is growing across the board in almost every arena,” Campbell said.
Campbell said,” Prime Minister Albanese of Australia has invited us in 2023 for a major Quad meeting that we think will extend our coordination, cooperation, not just in Southeast Asia, and the Indo Pacific as well.” (Reference: https://tinyurl.com/ymyb93kr )
The Quad, known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a group of four countries: the United States, Australia, India, and Japan.
Earlier on 21 Nov 2022, at Bali, India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu said that Indis-US relationship is being steered by Prime Minister Modi and President Biden who have met more than 15 times. At a lunch reception, hosted by Sandhu, the Senior Advisor to President Neera Tanden said,” This event really demonstrates so much about what President Biden is talking about when he talks about an inclusive country, a country that celebrates our diversity and our strength in diversity.” Among those who attended the event included friends of India from the administration, US Congress, the think-tank community, private sector organizations, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Special Presidential Coordinator, Amos Hochstein, Lieutenant Governor Elect of Maryland, Aruna Miller and the Indian diaspora.
At Bali, Indonesia, on Sunday, 20th November 2022, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said,” In the history of India-US relationship, 2022 has been a huge year and the next year is going to be even bigger.” He also applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘for being instrumental in forging a consensus during the recently concluded G-20 Summit.’
Finer referred to the 2+2 Quad ministerial meetings taking place this spring, the relaunch of India US CEO dialogue and launch of critical and emerging technology dialogue early in 2023. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
The entire Biden administration and certainly the president sees this as among the most consequential relationships for the US anywhere in the world, Finer said.
At a time that can be extremely difficult to forge a bipartisan consensus in Washington on almost anything, there is a strong bipartisan consensus in support of the US-India relationship and has been for decades and a high degree of continuity from one administration to the next,” he said.
On 11 November at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.: India’s Ambassador to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said,” One of our ministers, the other day, spoke about the sunrise moment in our bilateral relations. Sunrise is beautiful, it is promising and brings with it a lot of positive energy. We are in such a moment, in our bilateral partnership.” Sandhu added,“However, if we are complacent, that moment is going to pass. It will not wait for us. We need to seize the moment.”