Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the trajectory of the Indo-US partnership is “unmistakable and filled with promise”, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic state visit to the US will further solidify the defining relationship of the 21st century. Modi has been invited by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden for an official state visit, which will include a state dinner on June 22.
Addressing the annual India Ideas Summit of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) here on Monday, Blinken said: “We know that India and the United States are big, complicated countries. We certainly have work to do to advance transparency, promote market access, strengthen our democracies, and unleash the full potential of our people.”
According to the top US diplomat, one North Carolina entrepreneur from Gujarat, commenting on this explosion of US-India commercial activity, observed, “This couldn’t have happened 15 years ago’.” Blinken has said economic ties are at the heart of the Indo-US strategic partnership, and under the leadership of President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, “and private sector leaders like you, it is growing stronger by the day.” Blinken added that last year, trade between the two countries reached a record USD 191 billion, making the US the largest trading partner for India. American companies have invested at least USD 54 billion in India, from manufacturing to telecommunications. In the US, he said, Indian companies have invested over USD 40 billion in IT, pharmaceuticals, and more, supporting 4,25,000 jobs from California to Georgia.
This February, Air India announced the historic purchase of more than 200 Boeing aircraft that will support an estimated one million jobs across 44 states, Blinken said. Blinken said both the US and India are making transformative investments in their own countries—through Biden’s USD 1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Modi’s Rs 100 trillion infrastructure plan—to make their respective economies more productive and attractive for investors.
Blinken said and added that in January, USIBC co-hosted a roundtable where the two governments inaugurated a new initiative on critical and emerging technologies. “We’re elevating and expanding the strategic technology partnership between governments, businesses, and academic institutions in the US and India because we believe how technology is designed and used should be informed by democratic values and respect for human rights,” he said.
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and her counterpart, Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal, recently established a partnership to make the semiconductor supply chain more resilient. In Tamil Nadu, the US International Development Finance Corporation provided USD 500 million to help a leading US company build a solar manufacturing facility.
