External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar declared on Saturday that there is no ceiling to the India-US relationship and that both countries now view one another as ideal, comfortable, and desirable as partners. At the “Colors of Friendship” celebration held at India House in Washington, DC, the foreign minister was speaking to members of the Indian diaspora. In honor of Jaishankar, hundreds of people from the diaspora gathered on the lawns of Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Indian ambassador to the US, to listen to and watch local artists perform.
At the event, Jaishankar said, “I am often asked, where do you think this relationship (India-US) is going…now it’s hard for me today, really, to put a limit on it, to define it, to even voice expectations, because in every way…this relationship has exceeded expectations, which is why today we don’t even try to define it. We actually keep raising the bar”.
“We keep finding new domains, the more we do with each other, the more we find we are able to do, explore together and achieve together,” he added.
Emphasising “chemistry and comfort”, Jaishankar said that today India and the US have come up as “desirable, optimal and comfortable” partners.
“In this changing world…I would say, today, India and the United States have moved to a position where we really see each other as very desirable, optimal partners, comfortable partners, with whom it’s a natural instinct today…So, the chemistry and the comfort today of the relationship gives me enormous hope about where the prospects are,” he said.
President Biden’s domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma, and Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Dr. Rahul Gupta were among the senior officials who attended the reception. At the occasion were Democratic and Republican US lawmakers Rick McCormik and Shri Thanedar.