India Aviation Safety Downgrade Unrelated To Diplomatic Row: U.S.

"I don't know how much leeway we have in those," Harf said when asked if it was not possible to try and defer the FAA decision amid efforts to repair frayed relations over the arrest of Devyani Khobragade.

"But it's my understanding that this was all made inside a regulatory framework that has very specific criteria countries have to meet under ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards that we're all party to," she said.

"These aren't our standards," Harf said commenting on India's expression of disappointment over the FAA decision.

"They're the ICAO standards everyone has to live under, and we're committed to working with India to help them get back to a Category I rating," she said.

On the broader question of relationship Harf said: "we're all committed to moving on to working together on all of the issues we work on all the time."

"A number of folks obviously have talked to our Indian counterparts over the last few weeks, and I think we're all committed right now to moving the relationship forward and really focusing on working together," she said.

The spokesperson made three points relating to the FAA decision.

"First is that both the U.S. and India are fully committed to restoring India to a Category I rating as soon as possible," Harf said, noting "there is currently an FAA team in India, in part to discuss how to go about doing just that".

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