United States’s ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, in an exclusive interview with CNN-News18 on Tuesday, made some significant comments ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US from June 21 to 24. He also termed the ties between the two nations “historic” and “generational”, while stating his country’s position on a range of issues. Edited excerpts:
How has your experience in India been so far?
It feels like home…like a place that has changed so much from the time I first came to India as a teenager. What hasn’t changed is the spirit and warmth of the people and the ties to history and culture, but you can feel something palpable that is different…India’s place in the world, India’s investment in itself is really becoming a global example. And the friendship between our countries has never been stronger…You can feel that warmth between our leaders, you see that reflected at state dinner…But it isn’t just dependent on two people…It’s about 1.7 billion people who know, respect, and like each other… And see the future of both sides tied together.
How would you describe the current state of the India-US bilateral relationship?
I think it’s historic right now and it’s generational in both senses of the word…something that’s going to last more than this moment. It’s an investment in the generation together but it’s also generating good things for our countries and for the world…Whether it’s technology…making sure technology can be a force for good and not of oppression…Whether a strategic partnership that says this is about maintaining and respecting borders and sovereignty, open seaways, or whether it’s people-to-people ties, which of course we have been building for a long time…Every Indian knows somebody who has studied in the US, travelled to the US…I think that this is a historic moment of our relationships…It’s natural, but this is also generational…This is something that is not just about short-term transactions, but it’s about the long-term relationship.
Talking about the state dinner in June, it will be the first time in nine years that Prime Minister Modi will be on a state visit…What does this mean?
This visit is about the idea of the Indo-Pacific now being real…Not just to guide our relationship with India but to guide our own future to make sure we are not dependent on one place for supply chains and to make sure that our values of two democracies stand in contrast to other countries who aren’t democratic…This is also about the region put together, not just bilateral ties but our quadrilateral ties with Japan and Australia in the Quad…The I2U2 with Israel and UAE…We really have the ability to be a force together for doing good things not just for our people but recognition in Washington that our future is tied to India’s success and it’s success is tied to ours.
What are your concerns around India’s stand on the Russia-Ukraine war where it is not on the same page as the US and Europe?
We won’t stop speaking out about the unproven war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine… and I think when I talk to my Indian friends sovereignty on borders matters a lot in this country and they understand why the United States believes that rule of law, that central tenet of international relations has to be respected and in some cases even fought for… Here I was in Ukraine in February and it’s not just about power politics, this is about people, this is about this senior pensioner who has a missile ripping through her apartment with no strategic value whatsoever… The parent who separated from her children living in another country with the family she has never met… We can’t forget the human impact and a country like India that has experienced war I think knows that and feels that. At the same time, where we don’t agree a hundred per cent of the time, we are not gonna stop the momentum in this relationship … We know that we can continue doing things together even where, as all good friends do, we don’t agree one hundred per cent all the time but I think the street here in India recognises how important that sovereignty issue is… How important borders and respecting them are and we’ll continue to say you don’t have to be involved in this war to feel its impact. This is affecting the global economy and India has suffered too because of what’s going on.
Do you have a specific concern about the amount of oil India is importing from Russia?
Our position is that India has helped us actually keep that price cap that was essential tenet…It wasn’t a ban on this oil but a price cap and so India’s participation is actually fulfilling that goal for us…Were we to see that it goes higher or something else we would have to revisit that but right now it’s in line with how the alliance has come together…We understand oil is an international good that prices affect all of us, but at the same time whether it is diamonds or technology, other places where we want to be sure that there is a price for aggression, we are gonna continue to go very aggressively after that and hopefully bring like-minded people with us.
The most consequential relationship of the next many decades is going to be US-China. India has a stake in that relationship because India has its share of divergences with China. How do you see the US role in the border standoff with China?
I think our actions and spirit speaks for itself. India has more military drills with the US than any other country. Whenever there have been incidents, Indian called on us, we have been there, and I think that will continue to deepen whether that is co-production of defence or it’s about integrating our forces. It’s about sharing moment of crisis information with each other, and I think that is very important for not only India and US but for many countries. If we don’t respect those borders and if we don’t respect boundaries for one country that will not be respected for any country. India can count on our friendship and the strategic relationship that we have
One of the issues you had said you want to take up is that of religious freedom, human rights, press freedom, etc. Have you had those conversations with your Indian colleagues?
We have been engaged and we will continue to be engaged on the values I believe India stands for and the US stands for. We have challenges with our press, we have challenges with our religious freedom, we have challenges with hate crimes, racism…So this is really dialogue two friends are engaged on and to learn lessons about not whether bad things happen, because they do in complex societies, but how we react to them and how we prevent them from happening in the first place.
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