Washington: The US has said it supports India's "critical" role as a leader in maintaining regional stability and both have a common interest in promoting global security and the free flow of global trade and commerce. "We have a shared interest in promoting global security, stability, and economic prosperity through trade, investment and connectivity," the State Department said in a background note on India released yesterday.
"The United States and India have a common interest in the free flow of global trade and commerce, including through the vital sea lanes of the Indian Ocean," it said. "The US supports India's critical role as a leader in maintaining regional stability. Security ties are robust and growing with bilateral defence and counter-terrorism cooperation reaching unprecedented levels," it said. The two countries also look continue to develop their defense partnership through military sales and joint research, co-production and co-development efforts, it added.
The State Department said the US-India Strategic Dialogue, launched in 2009, provides opportunities to strengthen collaboration in areas including energy, climate change, trade, education, and counter-terrorism.
The third annual meeting was held in June 2012. In 2012 alone, seven Cabinet-level officials made visits to India to deepen bilateral ties, it added. Noting that the strength of people to people linkages between the US and India has come to define the indispensable relationship between the two countries, the State Department said the increased cooperation of state and local officials to create ties has enhanced engagement in education.
Additionally, state to state and city to city engagements have created new partnerships in business and the private sector and enhance India-US robust government to government engagement, it said. Stating that the US is one of India's largest trade and investment partners, it said US-India bilateral trade in goods and services has increased four and a half times over the last decade, to more than USD 86 billion in 2011.
"Bilateral trade between our two countries is up 40 per cent since we began our Strategic Dialogue three years ago. The stock of Indian FDI in the United States has increased from USD227 million in 2002 to almost USD 4.9 billion in 2011, supporting thousands of US jobs," said the State Department.
The US and India are negotiating a bilateral investment treaty as a key part of the effort to deepen the economic relationship, improve investor confidence, and support economic growth in both countries, it said. "India continues to move forward, albeit haltingly, with market-oriented economic reforms that began in 1991. Recent reforms have included an increasingly liberal foreign investment regime in many sectors," it said, welcoming the Indian government's move to allow FDI in retail.
The United States supports a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member, the State Department said India is an ASEAN dialogue partner, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development partner under its Enhanced Engagement program, and an observer to the Organization of American States.
"India is also a member and the current chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC). In November 2012, the United States was admitted as a dialogue partner in the IOR-ARC with India's support," it said.
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