Modi For Ambitious India U.S. Strategic Partnership: Mccain

WASHINGTON:  A top American lawmaker has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to focus India-U.S. partnership on an ambitious strategic agenda.

“It was my clear impression from meeting with the prime minister that he wants to focus our partnership on an ambitious strategic agenda,” said Senator John McCain, who recently met Modi.

“That was certainly the impression we had as well in our conversation,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal said in response.

A few days after McCain’s meeting, Biswal accompanied Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to meet Modi in New Delhi this month.

“We think that we have a very strong opportunity in terms of the security cooperation and the defence partnership. The PM in his conversation with us talked about defence manufacturing as a key area that India would like to pursue.

We think that there is scope and particularly the Indian budget did increase the FDI cap to 49 per cent,” Biswal said.

She said with Burns they had a very good meeting with the Prime Minister, finance minister, external affairs minister and various other members of the cabinet.

“They have identified a desire for an increased U.S.-India cooperation in infrastructure, in manufacturing, in the energy sector and certainly looking at the whole issue of skills and how we can improve access to education and skills in terms of the Indian population,” She said.