Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State visit to the United States later this month, US-India Business Council (USIBC) president Atul Keshap said both New Delhi and Washington DC can be the ‘arsenals of democracy in the Eastern and Western hemispheres’ which would ensure deterring any potential conflict. He also said that the whole country (the US) and city are excited about PM Modi’s upcoming visit.
“The world is watching. It is a big deal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming here. The whole country and city are excited and buzzing here at the Chamber, at USIBC, we’re buzzing about it. I think both governments are putting full effort in,” Keshap, who is also a former US envoy to India, told news agency ANI.
The former US diplomat recalled that both the US and India ‘used to have a very difficult relationship back in the days’ which is going ‘fantastic’ now. Referring to the meeting held between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan at the top American Chamber in January on building a trusted partner ecosystem in the area of critical and emerging technologies, Keshap called it ‘as important as the nuclear deal’.
“We are now QUAD partners together. We now are working on bringing the industrial convergence of our two great societies together to ensure that the deep tech and future tech of the 21st century is developed and designed by Americans and Indians for the happiness and prosperity of all of the free people of the world,” he added.
PM Modi will travel to the US for an official State visit from June 21 to 24, the third by any Indian Prime Minister so far. Despite PM Modi’s earlier visits to the US, it was not marked as State visit which is considered to be the highest ranking visit based on diplomatic protocol.
“This is only the third State visit by an Indian visitor and the Indian leader to the United States in all of the history of our relationship…This is a really big deal in the way that the United States treats, honour visitors diplomatically. States visits are reserved for our closest friends,” he added.
