WASHINGTON, June 14: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the US is determined to keep its partnership with India going and growing, underlining that its effectiveness will hinge on the ability of the two countries to convert common interests into common action.
“The effectiveness of this partnership will hinge on our ability together to convert common interests into common action,” Clinton wrote in an op-ed in ethnic Indian-American newspaper India Abroad and Rediff.Com.
“It’s not enough to talk about cooperating on civilian nuclear energy or attracting more US investment in India or defending human rights, we have to follow through so that our people can see the results,” she wrote in the op-ed, a copy of which was released by the State Department at the conclusion of the Strategic Dialogue.
She said the US recognises that some Indians still fear that working closely with the United States will undermine their “strategic autonomy.”
“But at the end of the day, a strategic partnership isn’t about one country supporting the policies or priorities of the other. It’s about working together on shared goals and preventing short-term disagreements from derailing long-term cooperation,” she said.
“The United States is determined to keep this partnership going and growing. And that means working together – including through mechanisms like this week’s US-India Strategic Dialogue – to build trust and deepen the habits of cooperation that will help break through areas of disagreement and bring benefits to the people of both countries,” Clinton wrote.
“Together, we can turn strategic fundamentals into strategic partnership,” she said.
Noting that the strategic fundamentals of India-US relationship – shared democratic values, economic imperatives and diplomatic priorities – are pushing both countries’ interests into closer convergence, Clinton said the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy are entering a new, more mature phase in their relationship.
“The most important bond between our two nations continues to be our common democratic heritage. We are both big, diverse, noisy democracies, committed to pluralism, freedom, and opportunity. Yet, for many decades, our economic and strategic policies often diverged. Only after the end of the Cold War, with India’s rapid economic development and growing regional leadership, did the trajectory of our relationship begin to change,” Clinton wrote. (PTI)
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