Joe Biden heralds ‘sea change decade’ in India-US relations

Alluding to exponential progress India and the US have made in bolstering their bilateral relationship in the last one decade since the signing of the civil nuclear deal, US Vice President Joe Biden stressed that it was the right time to scale up this critical relationship in all fields, as all of these would go on to shape the next century.

Speaking at a dinner hosted jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a top US-think tank, in Washington to mark the 10th anniversary of Indo-US civil nuclear deal agreement, Mr Biden said: “It’s on us to step up. We are on the cusp of a sea change decade.”

The vice president recounted marked acceleration in virtually all areas in the India-US relations since the sealing of the transformational deal nuclear deal in 2005. He was then chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and had played a key role in fast-tracking the India-US civil nuclear deal agreement.

“India now conducts more military exercise with USA than any other country of the world. Sometimes we forget what we did. It took courage on the part of two leaders to take the steps together,” he said.

Raising the bar for economic ties, Mr Biden reiterated the target of scaling up bilateral trade to $500 billion in the years to come. He also underscored India’s key role in curbing carbon emissions and lauded India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives in this regard. India and the US are looking to cooperate in the area of climate change and have come up with a detailed plan to reduce carbon emission in the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held from November 30 to December 11, 2015 in Paris this year.

Furthermore, the US is also looking to schedule a ministerial level tri-lateral meeting involving India and Japan against the backdrop of China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific regions. He underlined that India and the US should work together to ensure freedom of navigation across the oceans.

Author Profile

India Writes Network: India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org) is an emerging think tank and a media-publishing company focused on international affairs & the India Story. Centre for Global India Insights is the research arm of India Writes Network. To subscribe to India and the World, write to editor@indiawrites.org. A venture of TGII Media Private Limited, a leading media, publishing and consultancy company, IWN has carved a niche for balanced and exhaustive reporting and analysis of international affairs. Eminent personalities, politicians, diplomats, authors, strategy gurus and news-makers have contributed to India Writes Network, as also “India and the World,” a magazine focused on global affairs.