By IANS
New Delhi : India-US relationship is going to be stronger in the coming years and in 10-20 years it will become the most important relationship America has, US envoy David Mulford has said.
Talking to Karan Thapar in an interview on “The Devil’s Advocate programme”, Mulford also admitted that US President George W. Bush had a special affinity for India.
“I can testify that it is the case. He (Bush) made that point to me even before he ran for his first presidency. When he was elected (US president), in his very first national security review, he identified the US-India relationship as of key strategic importance to the US,” Mulford said in the interview, of which the second part will be telecast Monday night. The first part of the programme was aired Sunday on CNN-IBN.
Mulford said the India-US civil nuclear agreement was one of his “greatest of all initiatives aimed at creating a resolution to what is one of India’s great constraint – the energy resources crunch – in its effort to grow as an economic power”.
In the first part of the interview, Mulford had strongly urged New Delhi to approve the nuclear cooperation pact with Washington, saying time was running out for New Delhi to sign the landmark deal. He said it would be “now or never” for India.
The envoy said he personally believed that the relationship between the two countries – the two great democracies anchored half the way around the world from one another which have so many common practices, values etc – will be deeper.
“In 10-20 years, this will become, perhaps, the most important relationship the US has – the size of it. We are talking about two knowledge societies, high-tech oriented and having strong growth. There is no reason in my mind that relationship should not continue…”
However, the ambassador did not think that it would be “an alliance”.
“Alliance is not the right word. Because India’s policies, in philosophy, are such that it will remain as it is. It will have strong relationship around the world. Among them the US is also there.”
The US ambassador also admitted that both Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shared “a very special relationship”.
“They respect each other. They are different of course. But they have a high degree of respect to each other. They get on very well. They can communicate very well, understand each other’s problems. They are very focussed when they meet and they have a strong common objective – namely, the development of this historic relationship between the two great democracies.”
Mulford also ruled out apprehensions that a change in the leadership of the US, where presidential elections are due in November, might affect bilateral relations.
He also stated that the current economic crisis and the presidential elections would not affect outsourcing to India, as the US economy remains an open economy.
According to Mulford, the strengthening of economic ties would be on the basis of what India does on its development. The ambassador said India had to focus on infrastructure, energy and transformation of world economy.
Appreciating India’s approach to reforms – reforms by consensus – the ambassador said the process would be a “slow movement” but its destination was “more certain”. “India has done a good job,” he said.