By IANS,
Washington : The US has appealed to India to work with it around the world from Latin America to the Middle East and stressed that success in Afghanistan will require other countries, including India.
“We are counting on India’s rise not just as an economic partner but as a global power, one that engages everywhere from Latin America to the Middle East to East Asia,” US Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns said here.
He was delivering a lecture on ‘Is there a future for the US-India partnership’, which was organised jointly by industry lobby FICCI and Brookings Institute, an eminent Washington-based think tank.
India’s leadership in promoting a more stable South Asia – its multibillion dollar assistance commitment to Afghanistan, its determination to re-engage and normalise trade with Pakistan and its joint projects to boost infrastructure and capacity in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives – offer the hope of a more peaceful future for the region and the world, Burns said.
Stressing that the world can’t afford to repeat the mistake of neglecting Afghanistan, Burns stressed that “success in Afghanistan depends on ensuring that others are there, too”.
“That certainly includes India. With coalition forces drawing down, Afghanistan will need extensive private investment and economic linkages with its neighbours,” he said.
Burns said that even without direct access to India’s rising middle class market, Afghanistan already sends one-quarter of its exports to the country.
“Imagine what will be possible when transit and trade agreements extend outward to India and Central Asia, and Afghan traders are able to shift goods directly to the markets of Mysore and Mumbai,” he said.