India-US relationship has moved in a positive direction says USISPF chief

Washington: The relationship between India and the US has moved in a positive direction ranging from trade to defence and the two nations have shown a sense of deep understating of each other's differences, the head of a top India-centric business and strategic group has said.

Mukesh Aghi, CEO of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said that there is more alignment between the two countries when it is looked at from the geopolitical QUAD perspective.

“I think in every aspect we (India-US relationship) have moved in a positive direction. You look at trade, which has gone up. You look at the military exercises, we're doing more and more of those. We also have signed a lot of agreements with the US, especially in defence and space. We have agreed to repair the ships in our ports," Aghi said on Wednesday.

"When you look at it from the geopolitical QUAD perspective, there's more alignment between the two countries,” Aghi told PTI in an interview.

“What I see is that 2023 is a year of highlights between two countries. More important is that both countries have settled down; there is a sense of maturity, there is a sense of deep understanding of each other's differences, and there's a way to manage the differences and also respect each other's position from that perspective.

"I believe that the relationship there seems to keep on going up and up as time goes by,” Aghi said, giving his sense of the India-US relationship in the year 2023.

A key player in India's relationship with the US for more than a decade now, Aghi said both countries have agreed that the relationship is important.

“Yes, it is important to investigate what happened in Canada, what has been filed in the southern district in New York City. But that should not and would not derail the overall trajectory and momentum of the partnership between two countries,” he said.

“India has said that it has set up a higher-level committee to investigate because that's not the policy to go assassinate (people in foreign land). I believe they will sort it out." "In the case of Canada, there was a lack of maturity on the part of (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau to go to Parliament and make that announcement or make allegations. I think the Americans have done a better job of trying to share the data, find a consensus and take it forward. So, I believe that those two issues will not have an impact on the relationship, both in the short and the long term,” Aghi said.

He was responding to a question on the allegations by Trudeau that India was involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist and the American allegations that Indians were involved in a plot to kill a US national, also a Sikh separatist, in America.

US President Joe Biden, he said, has put a lot of “solid effort, energy, and strong policy behind the QUAD effort. I strongly believe that you have a president who has a clear understanding of how to take this relationship forward. India becomes a pivotal part of that strategy.” The Quad bloc groups India, Australia, Japan and the US, which oversees overall cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

The recently concluded assembly elections, he noted, send a message that India is a vibrant democracy and also that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will come back again in the Lok Sabha elections next year.

“(the elections send a message that) in India, you have a leader...Prime Minister Modi, seems to win the hearts of the vote bank and they're voting for him. It sends a strong message and also gives them a strong position when it deals with geopolitical issues and also with global leaders that you have a firmly entrenched leader who's well-liked." "If you look at the latest poll rating shows, 77 per cent approval highest of any global leader itself. The results of the state election send a very strong message that the potential that this prime minister will come back again in the looks of election next year,” he said.

The US companies, he said, are investing more and more in India. “They are exploring how to de-risk from China. They're exploring how to gather the growing market in India and capture the market share itself. Both from a de-risking perspective and market opportunity, US companies are spending more and more in India to be able to position themselves in the medium and long term,” he said.

Aghi said he would like to have a stable government which has an agenda to become more transparent in the policymaking, basically approving the investments, and approving the trade going up.

“Our wish is that the collaboration partnership continues to grow the trajectory, which we have seen in 2023 and we wish all the best for 2024,” Aghi said.