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CII conference on
US-Indian ties in the Asian context
New Delhi, September 04, 2008
Expressing optimism that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
will okay the exemption of India for civil nuclear commerce,
Edwin Feulner, President, The Heritage Foundation, however,
expressed concern that the timeline was becoming too tight for
the US Administration to approve the deal.
“With the US Congress likely to meet for only 11 days before
the presidential elections in November, time is certainly
tight,” Feulner said at the inaugural plenary of the
conference on US-India ties in the Asian context here on
Thursday. However, he was hopeful that the US administration
would favourably consider India’s case, given its record in
nuclear non-proliferation and the importance of the deal in
helping India meet its energy needs..
The conference is being organized by the Confederation of
Indian Industry and The Heritage Foundation.
Emphasising the increasingly important role that India was
playing, specially in the South Asian context, Feulner said
that the coming years would see the partnership between India
and the US touching new levels. Apart from increasing economic
relations, he visualized relations between the two countries
improving in areas like defence ties, counter-terrorism and
the larger Indian Ocean security. “India’s growth is a
positive development for not only the Asian region but for all
democracies. But we need to examine new ideas and policies
overcoming our differences in perceptions and policies,” he
added.
Delivering the keynote address, Hardeep Singh Puri, Secretary,
Economic Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, said that
“he saw a paradigm shift taking place in the relations between
India and the US.” He said that the two countries needed to
capitalize on their expertise in delivering knowledge-based
services and products and take bilateral trade to newer
levels. In this context, he said that both the governments
should work towards creating an enabling environment for
industry to mature.
Pointing out that the US was emerging as a favoured trade
destination for Indian industry, Puri said that as more areas
of convergence emerged, there was need for greater
understanding of issues like outsourcing and access to high
technology products. In this context, he pointed to the
successful working of bilateral groups like the US-India High
Technology Cooperation Group, which he said had helped foster
a qualitative transformation.
Earlier welcoming the participants, Tarun Das, Chief Mentor,
CII, pointed to changes that Indo-US relations had undergone
over the years and said that it was likely that in the coming
years, Indian industry would become a major investor in the
US. He said it was because of the various successful Track II
initiatives that bilateral relations between the two countries
had improved, particularly in recent years.
Chandrajit Bannerjee, Director General, CII, delivered the
concluding remarks at the inaugural session of the one-day
conference, which will cover issues like counter-terrorism
cooperation, security and defence, and economic and energy
issues.
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