‘Indo-US ties redefined after decades of lack of trust’

India has taken ‘a bold initiative’ to forge a partnership with the US, Anand Sharma said.

India has taken ‘a bold initiative’ to forge a partnership with the US after decades of lack of trust but its relationship with one country is not at the expense of any other nation, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said.

“India has fashioned its external policies based on the sole objective of optimising the benefits of much engagements,” Sharma said addressing the sixth annual Eurasia Conference in the prestigious Judge Business School at Cambridge.

Speaking on the subject ‘India in the 21st century and its engagement in the Caspian and wider Central Eurasian Region,” the minister noted that India has been engaging various major powers and groups in the world. We have redefined our relationship with United States after decades of lack of trust. There is better understanding on both sides of the needs and aspirations of the people.”

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“While India has taken a bold initiative to forge a partnership with USA, as demonstrated by the recently concluded Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement, it has also been steadily strengthening its ties with China both in terms of scope and extent. In fact, India’s trading linkages with China have expanded rapidly over the last few years making China the second largest trading partner of India next only to USA,” he said.

Sharma said in keeping with the spirit of ‘our times, India looks upon its relationship with USA and China and indeed with Russia and Japan as well as other leading power centres in the world as being independent of one another’.